96 . CHENOPODIACE^ 



Melde ; the Italians, Atrepice ; the Spaniards, Armuelles, and the Russians, 

 Lebeda. The A. hortensis is sometimes found in uncultivated places, as about 

 Saftron Walden ; but has, doubtless, escaped from some old garden. 



8. Grass-leaved Sea Orache (A. littordlis). — Stem erect ; leaves 

 lanceolate, entire, or toothed ; perianth of the fruit toothed, covered at the 

 back with short points ; annual. In one form of this plant the leaves are 

 very narrow and entire, and the perianth of the fruit is egg-shaped, rhomboid, 

 acute, toothed and tubercled on the back, with spreading points. This is 

 readily distinguished by its open, pointed perianth. In the form often 

 described as A. marina, the leaves are egg-shaped and lanceolate, irregularly 

 toothed or rarely entire, and the perianth of the fruit is inversely heart- 

 shaped and triangular, blunt, toothed, tubercled on the back, and closed. 

 Both forms are common in salt marshes. The perianth of the fruit is very 

 remarkalile, being among the largest of the British species, and opening like 

 a bivalve shell. Within this tubercled green covering lies a large seed, 

 shaped like a bean. The plant is chiefly found on the eastern coasts of this 

 kingdom. The under parts of the leaves are mealy, as are also the flowers, 

 which grow in rather crowded, axillary and terminal spikes from July to 

 September. 



A very large coarse species, the Shining-leaved Orache {A. nitens), has 

 been found by Dr. Bromfield on the sea-shore at the Isle of Wight. It is a 

 common plant in the east of Germany, but must be regarded as an accidental 

 one on our own coast. It has an erect, branched stem, with triangular 

 pointed leaves, which are shining on the upper surface, and glaucous beneath, 

 the lower leaves becoming heart-shaped and halberd-shaped, while the upper 

 are elongate and triangular. The perianth of the fruit is egg-shaped, taper- 

 ing at the point, entire, smooth on the back, thin and finely reticulated, and 

 opening to the base. 



4. Glasswort (Salicornia). 



1. Jointed Glass wort (^S*. herbdcea). — Stem herbaceous, joints com- 

 pressed, rather thickened upwards ; spikes cylindrical, tapering, stalked ; 

 annual. In the usual form the stem of this plant is erect ; but in one, 

 sometimes described as S. prociimbens, the stem is prostrate. The Glasswort 

 is a singular plant, very abundant in our salt marshes, and though its flowers 

 are inconspicuous, and it has no leaves, yet it is truly ornamental to the 

 grassy plain. Its height is from four to eight inches, and its texture succu- 

 lent. The stem is formed of numerous fleshy tubes, which are smooth, and 

 almost as clear as if they were cut out of green glass ; but the plant loses all 

 its beauty in the herbarium, Avhere it shrivels up. The spikes of flowers are 

 jointed like the stem, bearing at the base of every short joint a cluster of 

 three green flowers, each of which contains one or two stamens. These 

 appear in August and September. The perianth of the fruit has a narrow 

 circular wing, and the seed is about twice as long as it is broad. 



Both this and the next species abounding in soda, the plants received the 

 name of Glasswort from their old use in the manufacture of glass, a use now 

 supei^seded by the later discoveries of chemistry. The plant is the Glasuchmah 

 of the Germans ; the ZoudLruid of the Dutch, and is called in France, 



