324 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



Sea Thrift (Statice maritima). 



Once called -4 rm^Wa, the Monkish Latin for Flos 

 ArmericB, this plant was so named from its resem- 

 blance to a pink. The second Latin name indicates 

 its maritime habitat. 



Along the British coasts, especially where they 

 are rocky, as on the west, this plant is common 

 everywhere. It is also found inland on lofty moun- 

 tains, a characteristic it shares with some other 

 maritime plants as Scurvy Grass, Sea Campion, Sea 

 Plantain. 



Rocky, stony, muddy or sandy sea-shores and 

 alpine rocks on mountains constitute the habitat of 

 Thrift. It occurs in the salt-marsh formation, in 

 the general salt-marsh association, with Sea Spurrey, 

 Sea Aster, Sea Lavender^ Sea Plantain, Orache, 

 Samphire, Sea Elite, Sea Arrow Grass, Sea Manna 

 Grass, and in shingle-beach communities. 



Sea Thrift has the typical rosette habit. The 

 root-stock is woody, tufted, branched. The plant is 

 smooth or downy. The leaves are narrow to linear 

 or broad, blunt or acute, one-nerved, in dense tufts, 

 with impressed points on both surfaces. 



The only aerial stem is a scape, with hairs 

 spreading or turned back, or smooth, simple, leafless, 

 with a terminal head of pink or white flowers. The 

 involucre is torn, the outer bracts not so long as the 

 head, ovate, acute, produced into long, brown or 

 green points. The inner is oblong, blunt, with a 



