36 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



inapplicable to A. arenaria, and the female flowers, he says, are axillary 

 and in pairs, but in our A. arenaria they are generally much more 

 numerous — althougli often only 1 or 2 produce seed, yet few but the 

 very smallest spechnens have less than 4 or 5 female flowers in the 

 axils of the leaves. 



Frosted Sea Orache. 



French, Arroche laciniee. German, Gelappte Melde. 



Section IL— OBIONE. Gdrt. 



Flowers monoecious or dioBcious. Female flowers with 2 sepals 

 united to the middle or free only at the apex. Pericarp very thin, 

 adhering to the tube of the perianth when ripe. Radicle superior. 



SPECIES yi— A TRIP LEX PORTULACOIDES. Linn. 



Plate MCCVIII. 



Obione portulacoides, Moq.-Tand. in B.C. Prod. Vol. XIII. Pt. ii. p. 112. Bah. Man. 



Brit. Bot. ed. vi. p. 290. Gren. & Goclr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. III. p. 14. 

 Halimus portulacoides, Dwnort. Bah. in Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin. Vol. I. p. 16. Koch, 



Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 700. Fries, Sum. Veg. Scand, p. 54. 



Perennial. Stem shrubby at the base, decumbent or trailing, much 

 branched ; branches erect or ascending and curving upwards at the apex. 

 Leaves mostly opposite, oblanceolate or obovate or elliptical, wedge- 

 shaped at the base, subobtuse, entire ; the upper ones narrower, opposite 

 or alternate ; a few of the uppermost strapshaped ; none of them hastate. 

 Flowers monoecious, in glomerules arranged in rather dense leafless 

 spikes, combined into a small lax terminal panicle, with small strap- 

 shaped leaves at the base of the branches. Fruit perianth subsessile, 

 obdeltoid-rhombic or obovate-rhombic, with the valves united as far 

 up as the points of the lateral lobes, 3-lobed at the apex, smooth or 

 slightly muricated on the back ; the lateral lobes short and subfalcate, 

 the central lobe forming a tooth. Seed small, compressed, brown, 

 rugose, opaque. Stem not striped ; leaves densely clothed with con- 

 tiguous dirty white scales. 



In salt marshes, on cliffs and waste places by the sea. Common, 

 and generally distributed in England. Very rare in Scotland, where 

 it occurs on the coast of Wigtonshire ; it has also been reported from 

 the banks of the Clyde at Helensburgh, but this report requires verifi- 

 cation. Very rare in Ireland, confined to the southern and eastern 

 coasts. 



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

 Rootstock shortly creeping, woody. Stems flcxuous, wiry, 1 to 



