(J ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES I— SALICORNIA HERBACEA. Limi. 

 Plates MCLXXXI. MCLXXXII. 

 JllUut, VI Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1317. 



Root annual. Stem not rooting ; branches opposite, usually again 

 conspicuously branched ; internodes of the stem and branches thickened 

 upwards, and sliglitly compressed. Spikes terete in flower, cylin- 

 drical in fruit. Flowers in threes, immersed in the fleshy spike towards 

 the base on each side of each internode, the 3 flowers arranged nearly 

 in an equilateral triangle. Perianth slightly winged along the cleft 

 in fruit. Seed with an herbaceous hairy testa. Plant green, or, more 

 rarely, tinged with dull red or yellomsh brown. 



Var. a, acetaria. Moq.-Tand. 

 Plate MCLXXXI. 

 S. annua, Svi. Engl. Bot. No. 415. 



Stem erect, branched ; branches suberect. 



Var. 3, prociimbens. ^-^j- / 

 Plate MCLXXXII. 

 S. procumbens, Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 2475. 



Stem procumbent or decumbent. Branches spreading or pro- 

 cumbent. 



On muddy salt marshes, especially by the sides of tidal rivers. 

 Rather common, and generally distributed. Vars. a and 3 about 

 equally common. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Late Summer, Autumn. 



Stem and branches 4 inches to 2 feet high in var. a, rarely more than 

 (') or 8 inches in var. 3, with a central woody core covered with a 

 smooth translucent herbaceous flesh, which is divided by joints at 

 the nodes, the upper part of each internode larger than and embracing 

 the base of the one next above it ; branches very variable in length. 

 Spikes formed of short fleshy internodes resembling those of the stem, 

 each witli 3 flowers on each of the two opposite sides : the succeeding 

 internode with its flowers over the spaces between the two triangles of 

 flowers. Stamens 1 or 2 ; anthers pale yellow. Seed greenish white, 

 ovoid, hairy with curved hairs, enclosed in the calyx. Flesh drying 

 up towards the bottom of the stem when the plant is in flower, so that 

 it is merely covered by a dry greyish skin, and by the time the plant 

 is in seed the fleshy portion is nearly all eroded except on the spikes, 

 which -become of a pale dirty yellow. 



