444 TAMARIX. [CIASS V. OLDER lit. 



and used by the poor people on llie Continent, wliere the phint is move 

 frequent tlian with us, to make necklaces ; they have a sweetish taste 

 when masticated, succeeded by a somewhat nauseous bitterness, and 

 if many of them are eaten produce sickness and vomiting. The wood 

 is white and brittle. 



GENUS XCVII. TAMARIX.— Linn. Tamarisf,: 



Nat. Ord. Tamakisci'ne^. Des Vacx. 



Gen. Char. Calyx four or five parted, persistent, inferior. Petals 

 four or five. Stamens four or five, or double the number. 

 Sti(/mas three, long, spreading, glandular, and oblique at the 

 apex. Capsule tapering to a point, of one cell, three valved, and 

 many seeded. Seeds crowned with long simple hairs. — Named 

 from the Tamarisci, a people who inhabit the banks of the 

 Tamaris, now Tambra, in Spain, wliere the amarisk Tabounds. 



1. T. Gal'lica, Linn. (Fig. 507.) French Tamarisk. Smooth 

 glaucous leaves, ovate, acuminate, minute ; spikes lateral, numerous; 

 bracteas with a long tapering point. 



English Botany, t. 1318. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 111. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 147. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 62. 



Stern slender, nearly erect, with long drooping slender red shining 

 branches. Leaves minute, glaucous green, ovate, with a long acumi- 

 nated point, bluntly spined at the base, and embracing the stem. 

 Inflorescence lateral and terminal, spikes becoming after flower- 

 ing racemose, from the flowers being elevated on short footstalks. 

 Flmvers numerous, crowded, pale pink, inodorous, each with a small 

 hractea at its base, somewhat ovate, with membranous margins and a 

 long tapering point. Calyx of five ovate segments, wiih membranous 

 margins united at the base. Corolla of five ovate oblong petals, three 

 times as long as the calyx. Stamens on long s\ex\i\.ex filaments, alter- 

 nating wiih the petals, dilated at the base, and cither distinct or united 

 at the base, sometimes there are four, or eight, or ten. Anthers small, 

 pink, ovate. Styles wanting. Stifjitias three, long, spreading, some- 

 what feathery, the apex with a rather large oblique gland. Capsule 

 ovate, with a long tapeiing triangular point, of one cell and three 

 valves, with a central placenta at the base of the valves. Seeds nu- 

 merous, small, crovNued with a stalked tuft, of a few long white 

 shining simple hairs (comose). 



Habitat. — Kocks, clifl's, and sandy shores near the sea. In most of 

 the coves from the Nore-head to the Land's-end, on St. JMicliael's 

 Mount, and other places, Cornwall; near Ihirsl Castle, Hants; and 

 near Hastings ; but no where with suspicion of having been planted. 



Shrub; flowering in July. 



