414 ECUINOPHOKA. {ClASS v. order ii. 



GENUS LXXXVI. ECHINOTHORA.— Linn. Prickly 

 Samphire. 



Gen. Char. Calyx margin of five teeth. Petals obcorclatc, with an 

 inflexed point, the outer ones larger, and l)ifid. Flowers of the 

 rai/ on long stalks, sterile, in the centre of a solitary fertile one. 

 Fruit ovate, roundish, inclosed in a hollow receptacle, with a 

 short protruded beak. Carpels with five equal depressed waved 

 striated ridges. Channels with single vittm, covered with an 

 arachnoid membrane. Albumen with the sides rolled inwards. 

 Itivolucres of numerous segments. — Name from f;)(;ivof, a hedge- 

 hog ; and (pi^ui, to hear; in reference to the prickly nature of the 

 plant. 

 1. E. Spina' sa, Linn. {F\g. 474) Prickli/ Samphire. Leaves pin- 

 nate; leaflets wiih rigid triangular spinous segments. 



English Botany, t. 2413. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 37. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 139. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 12(3, 



Root tapering, long, fleshy, branched. The whole plant of a pale 

 glaucous green, more or less thickly clothed, especially the stem and 

 branches, with short soft pale hairs. Stem from one to two feet high, 

 rigid, much branched in every direction from the base upwards, leafy, 

 round, striated, solid. Leaver very hard and rigid, opposite and alter- 

 nate, on striated angular footstalks, channeled above, dilated at the 

 base with a narrow thin pale membranous margin, pinnate, leaflets 

 rigid, triangular, with a sharp rigid spinous point, the upper leaves 

 three-cleft. Umbels terminal and lateral, the general of several thick 

 striated rays, swollen upwards, which forms the receptacle to the 

 central solitary fertile flower, the partial of numerous, gradually 

 becoming short towards the centre. General involucre of numerous 

 simply lanceolate spinous segments, sometimes two or three cleft, the 

 ^aj<Jo/ of numerous short irregular ones. Flowers numerous, white, the 

 outer ones radiant, with some of the outer petals larger than the others, 

 and bifid, the outer ones bearing stamens only, the central one only 

 with pistils, sessile. Calyx of five spinous persistent teeth. Petals 

 inversely heart-shaped, with an inflexed jagged point. Stamens on 

 slender filaments, incurved, and the anthers small, roundish. Disk 

 rather large, almost flat, fleshy. Styles of the central flower long, 

 recurved, spreading. Stigmas very small. Fruit inclosed in the 

 hollow enlarged receptacle at the top of the rays, ovate oblong, with a 

 tapering beak projecting through the opening at the top of the recep- 

 tacle, crowned by the liardened disk and styles. Carpels with a pale 

 ihin pericarp, with five equal waved broadish ridges, depressed and 

 striated, the channels shallow, with single slender vittcc, which have a 

 thin oobweb-likc membrane stretched over them. Albumen on a 



