THRIFT FAMILY 313 



§§ Stamens epipetalous 

 Ord. XLVI. PLUMP.AGfNE^. — The Thrift Family 



A small group of herbaceous or somewhat shrubby plants, with 

 undivided fleshy leaves ; polysymmetric, perfect flowers in panicles 

 or heads ; calyx inferior, tubular, 5-cleft, plaited, persistent, mem- 

 branous, and often coloured, approaching the texture of Everlast- 

 ing-flowers ; corolla 5-cleft nearly to the base ; stamens 5, opposite 

 the petals ; ovary of 5 carpels, i -chambered ; styles 5 ; fruit dry, 

 i-seeded. They inhabit salt marshes and the sea-shores of most 

 temperate regions, and some are found also in mountainous 

 districts. Their properties are various ; some are astringent and 

 tonic, some intensely acrid, and many contain iodine ; but, like 

 many other maritime plants, they lose the peculiar salts which 

 they contain in their natural localities when growing at a distance 

 from the sea. Thrift (Stdtice), for example, as a maritime plant 

 contains iodine and soda ; but as a mountain or garden plant 

 exchanges these two substances for potash. The root of Limo- 

 niuni Carolinidnum is one of the most powerful astringents known, 

 and several species of Plumbago are so acrid that the fresh root 

 is used to raise blisters. Several kinds of Sea-Lavender {Limb- 

 nium) are ornaments to our shores, and others are cultivated in 

 our conservatories. 



1. LiMONiUM. — Flowers in one-sided panicled cymes. 



2. Statice. — Flowers in dense bracteate heads. 



I. LiMONiUM (Sea- La vender). — Leaves all radical; flowers in 

 spike-like, one-sided, spreading, branched cymes; style smooth. 

 (Name from the Greek leimon^ a meadow.) 



1. L. vulgdre (Common Sea-Lavender). — Lfaz;^^ long-stalked, 

 oblong, I -ribbed, pinnately veined, tipped with a point, smooth ; 

 flower-stalk, a leafless angular scape, branched near the summit 

 into many spreading spike-like clusters ; flowers blue-lilac, scent- 

 less. — Muddy, sea-coasts ; not infrequent. — Fl. July — November. 

 Perennial. 



2. L. humile (Few-flowered Sea- Lavender), differing mainly in 

 having more erect branches and fewer flowers, is less common. 



3. L. recurvum (Portland Sea- Lavender). — Not more than 9 in. 

 high ; leaves obovate-spathulate, obtuse, long-stalked ; stem stout, 

 rigid, rough, usually branching above the middle ; branches ascend- 

 ing, curved, mostly flowering ; spikes linear, very dense-flowered, 

 thick-spreading and recurved ; spikelets 1 — 4-flowered, in 2 rows; 

 inner bracts obovate, with white or slightly pink margins ; flowers 



