SAMPHIRE 185 



than the heads. The scales in the receptacle are 3-toothed. The 

 petals are narrow and deeply notched, turned down, and help with the 

 anther-stalks to close the flower, though they can be pushed on one 

 side by an insect. 



Eighteen inches or two feet is the usual height of the Sea Holly. 

 To find the flowers search the seaboard in July and August. Perennial, 

 and increased by roots, the plant is well established in its habitats. 



The flowers are small and inconspicuous, and not adapted for insect 

 visits, like some other maritime species. The styles are threadlike and 

 erect, and the petals are narrow and have the point turned in, whilst 

 the umbels are in very dense heads, and are more liable in this way to 

 be self- than cross-pollinated. The anthers ripen first. The honey is 

 secreted by a disk with 10 rays at the base, and is concealed. 



The achenes are flattened, and when ripe are aided in dispersal 

 by the wind or passing herds, being detached and jerked to a distance. 



Sea Holly is a salt-lover, and delights in a saline soil, and is also 

 a sand plant, addicted to a sand soil. 



The Lepidoptera Silky Wainscot, Argyrolepia maritima, Conchylis 

 francillana and the Dingy Skipper Thanaos (Hesperia) tages, and a 

 Heteropterous insect, Therapha Hyoscyami, feed on it. 



Eryngium, Dioscorides, is latinized from the Greek name of the 

 plant, and the second name (Latin) indicates its habitat. 



Sea Holly is called Eringo, Eryngo, Sea Holly, Sea Holme, Sea 

 Hulver, Ringo-roots. 



The plant used to be employed as a love charm, and it was candied 

 and sold in Shakespeare's day as the " kissing comfits " of Falstaff. In 

 Sweden the tops are all eaten like asparagus. It is held by the Arabs 

 to be a restorative, the chief virtue residing in the roots. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



122. Eryngiiim maritimum, L. Root fleshy, large, stem rigid, 

 glaucous, leaves spinous, clasping, leathery, palmate, involucral leaves 

 3-lobed, flowers blue, in a dense head, with a whorl of bracts. 



Samphire (Crithmum maritimum, L.) 



The coasts of Europe to the south of Erance, and those of N. 

 Africa, or the Temperate Zone, mark the present distribution of this 

 plant, which is unknown in earlier times. It is found in Great Britain 

 throughout the whole Peninsular province, and the South coast, on 

 the East coast only in E. Suffolk, on the entire Welsh coast except 

 Denbigh and Flint, throughout the Lakes province, in Kirkcudbright, 



