CLASS V. ORDER n.] SALSOLA. 429 



appendage. Stamens iuserted into the base of tbe perianth. 

 Fruit a depressed membranous utricle. Seed solitary, with a 

 membranous covering. Embryo spiral. — Name from Sal, salt. 

 1. S. Kali, Linn. {¥ig. Adi.) Prickly Salt ivort. Stem herbaceous, 

 prostrate, with spreading branches ; leaves rough, awl-shaped, with a 

 spinous point ; flowers axillary, solitary ; perianth of the fruit car- 

 tilaginous. 



English Botany, t. 634. — English Flora, vol, ii. p. 18.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 143. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 214. 



Root of numerous branched fibres. Stems numerous, prostrate, 

 with spreading branches, from six to twelve inches long, roundish, 

 furrowed or striated, with green and yellow longitudinal lines, rough, 

 with short thick hairs, fre({uently almost smooth at the base, and 

 sometimes almost entirely so, except the ends of the branches. Leaves 

 alternate, numerous, awl-shaped, fleshy, angular, channeled above, with 

 a mid-rib and obtuse margins, except at the base, where it is somewhat 

 dilated, with pale narrow membranous entire or toothed margins ; 

 the point terminating in a sharp hard rigid cartilaginous spine, pale, 

 smooth, and shining, especially when dry. Flowers solitary, sessile, 

 in the axis of the leaves from the base upwards, of a pale pink or 

 white, and with mostly three leaf-like bracteas as the base of each. 

 Perianth of five deep ovate acuminate segments, converging over the 

 centre of the flower, each three ribbed, and at the back about the 

 middle a transverse prominence, which after flowering dilates into a 

 thin roundish cartilaginous appendage, with a thin pale jagged mem- 

 branous margin, and vein-like ramifications branching into it; this 

 appendage spreads around, while the points of the segments above it 

 closely converge over the fruit. Stamens on slender filaments, longer 

 than the perianth, with rather large ovate anthers, yellow. Styles 

 two, sometimes three, short, united at the base. Stigmas spreading. 

 Fruit a thin depressed pale brown membranous utricle, enveloped in 

 the perianth, and crowned by the persistent styles. Seed solitary, 

 roundish, compressed, almost flat, its pericarp membranous, pale 

 brown, finely dotted, without albumen, the embryo of two spiral lobes. 

 Habitat. — Sandy sea shores ; frequent. 

 Annual ; flowering in July. 



Saltwort is one of the plants grown on the sea coast and small islands 

 in various parts of Europe, especially on the coast of Spain, and various 

 other parts of the Mediterranean, and burned for the soda which it 

 contains, which is known in the unwashed state, combined with the 

 ashes of the plant, under the name of barilla; but within tbe last few 

 years, the improvements made by* the chemical manufacturers are 

 such as to convert various kinds of their refuse, after being employed 

 in the making of other articles, and especially the Muriate of Soda 

 (common sail), after having being used in the process of making 



