88 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



loose sand. Stems usually only a few inclies long, but sometimes 

 1 foot or more. Leaves J to IJ inch across, very thick and fleshy, 

 with the basal lobes rounded. Peduncles longer than the leaves. 

 Bracteoles very broad, the outer one at least a little shorter than the 

 calyx ; the two outermost sepals larger and broader than the others. 

 Corolla shaped like that of C. Sepium, 1| inch across, pale purplish- 

 pink, with pale-yellowish rays. Capsules nearly as large as a hazel- 

 nut. Seeds about the size of peppercorns, globular - trigonous, 

 black, dim, but smooth unless examined under a very powerful lens. 

 Plant deep-green, shining, glabrous. 



Sea Bindweed. 



French, Liseron Soldanelle. German, Meeratrands Winde. 



This is one of the prettiest of our seashore plants, and shares, in common with the 

 rest of its family, a reputation in rustic pharmacy ; indeed, but few of our Avild plants 

 have not some virtue concealed within their substance, which has been employed with 

 more or less success. It is only since the science of chemistry has pi'oved that the 

 active principles of these vegetable productions are the same in many plants, and can 

 be extracted by chemical processes, that the practice of making infusions of all sorts 

 of herbs and weeds, and attributing a special efficacy to each, has been gradually 

 abandoned for the more convenient method of administering the valuable principles to 

 be found in nature's laboratory in smaller quantities and a less troublesome form. 

 The young shoots of the Sea Bindweed were formerly gathered by the people on the 

 southern coast and pickled as a substitute for samphire : they are salt and bitter in 

 flavour, even when thus prepared, and ai-e probably not wholesome. 



Tribe II.— CUSCUTE^. 



Leafless plants, parasitical on the stems of other plants. 

 Carpels united into a compound syncarpous ovary. Embryo 

 without cotyledons. 



GENUS II— C U S C U T A. Tournef. 



Calyx 5-partite, coloured. Corolla persistent, bellsbaped-salver- 

 shaped ; tube with 5 small scales ; limb 4- or 5-lobed. Stamens 

 4 or 5, inserted in the middle of the corolla-tube between or above 

 the scales. Styles 2, or 1- and more or less 2-cleft. Capsule sub- 

 globose, 2-celled, circumscissily dehiscent. Seeds 2 in each cell of 

 the capsule. 



Leafless annuals, with thread-like stems twining round those of 

 other plants, into which they insert adventitious roots. Elowers 

 in globular heads or head-like corymbs, white or pink. 



The origin of the name of this genus of plants is said by Dr. Mayne to be a 

 corruption of the Greek word Kuaavda {kassutha), from the Arabic chasuth or chessuth. 



