THE SEA-LAVENDER. 75 



thick in texture, and from four to eight inches in length. 

 The form is very simple, somewhat egg-shaped, but 

 having a pointed apex, while the base of the leaf passes 

 almost imperceptibly into the lines of the long stalk 

 that bears it. The veining, owing to the texture of 

 the leaf, is very indistinct, and but little more than the 

 mid-rib of each leaf is noticeable. From this large and 

 conspicuous rosette of leaves rise the flower-stalks. These 

 are leafless and fork very freely; and from the general 

 lightness of the effect, the absence of leaves and the 

 small size of the blossoms, they present a great contrast 

 to the heavy-looking mass of foliage from whence they 

 spring. The flowering-stalks are some eighteen inches or 

 so in height, and the numerous divisions into which they 

 fork spread and curve boldly outwards. Towards the ends 

 of these branches the numerous flowers are found growing 

 in closely-packed spikes. The calyx is, in its upper part, 

 purple, in its lower part green. The spikes of flowers are 

 unilateral, i.e., all the flowers are thrown off from one 

 side, the upper in this case ; there is, therefore, the same 

 general direction in them all, and while in one spike the 

 eye sees all the blossoms in side view, in another spike, 

 owing to a twist in the stem or some other cause, one sees 

 nothing but n long line of little circular blossoms all fully 

 displayed. The flowers are of a bluish purple or lavender 

 colour (hence its common name), and have five petals. 

 The plant is very astringent in its nature, and has been 

 advantageously used where medicines of that quality are 

 desirable, a fact alluded to in its generic name, a title 

 derived from the Greek verb to stop. 



A variety of the plant, similar in its habitat, but smaller 

 and less densely flowered, is frequently met with. Though 



