754 



state of concentration in which the latter is found in the shallow rect- 

 angular reservoirs (brine-pans) into which the sea-water is admitted 

 for evaporation by the sun's heat before it is pumped into the boilers 

 for granulation, which brine is nearly at the point of saturation when 

 taken from the pans. " A large state of this plant, one to two feet 

 high, with a woody stem, and much resembling S. fruticosa, L., occurs 

 in the salt-marshes near Portsmouth. Professor Don, however, con- 

 siders it merely as a form of S. herbacea ;" Dr. Macreight, 'Manual of 

 British Botany,' p. 195. This I have not hitherto fallen in with, but 

 a great deal of the mainland line of coast is still unexplored by me, 

 and even the shores of Portsea Island have been very partially ex- 

 amined in person. If our S. radicans (see below) be merely, as Mo- 

 quin-Tandon marks it, a variety of S. fruticosa, £., may not the large 

 form found by Dr. Macreight be the true fruticosa of Linnaeus, not- 

 withstanding the opinion to the contrary of the late and much la- 

 mented Professor Don, who, with all his extensive knowledge, was 

 occasionally hasty and careless in pronouncing on species submitted 

 to him for his decision ? 



Salicornia radicans. In similar situations with the foregoing, but 

 far less generally abundant. On Ryde Dover, and by the Medina 

 above West Cowes, on the edge of the little salt-pools left by the 

 ebbing of the tide. Plentiful in Newtown salt-marshes. "Abundant 

 near Cumberland Fort (Portsea Island) and Anglesey" (near Gosport) ; 

 Dr. Macreight, Man. Brit. Bot. Shore at Cams (by Fareham). The 

 Salterns (Fareham) ; Mr. W. L. Notcutt. This species is referred by 

 Moquin-Tandon to his genus Arthrocnemum (Monogr. Chen. p. Ill), 

 of which Salicornia fruticosa, L., is the type, and our S. radicans con- 

 sidered as a variety of that plant by him. According to Moquin- 

 Tandon Arthrocnemum differs from Salicornia in the want of a wing 

 or border to the perigone, and in the semiannular embryo (in Salicor- 

 nia the embryo forms a complete ring around the albumen). But 

 besides that the membranous appendage above mentioned is very 

 slight and inconspicuous in Salicornia, and the incompleteness of the 

 annular curvature of the embryo a character of degree, and one very 

 troublesome to recur to in practice, the habit of these genera is too 

 similar to warrant the establishment of Arthrocnemum on the slender 

 distinctions afforded by a few Salicornias which barely offer even 

 good sectional characters. 



A highly curious instance of the strongest possible analogy in form, 

 aspect and habit between plants widely separated in natural affinity, 

 is exemplified in the Salicornia of our salt-marshes, and a West 



