276 .MARITIME PRIMULACE^E. 



and the Wild-beet (Beta maritima), whose leaves may 

 be used as Spinach. The Spinach itself is one of the 

 same tribe, many of which are used as esculents in 

 various parts of the world. Some of them, such as the 

 Garden Beet, or Mangold Wurzel ; and the Chenopodium 

 quinoa, which is largely cultivated in Peru, are among 

 the most important green crops in the countries where 

 they flourish. Sometimes the Atriplices, particularly A . 

 portulacoides, of our shores, grow in the pools of brackish 

 water, or the drains made along a muddy shore, and 

 then, not unfrequently, their stems may be found cloth- 

 ed with tufts of a delicate little sea-weed, Bostrychia 

 scorpioides, the only one of 

 the Floridece which is found 

 in brackish water. It seems 

 strange to find a genuine 

 sea-weed growing upon the 

 stems of a flowering plant. 



A common little shore- 

 plant, Glauxmaritima, placed 

 by botanists in the same 

 family as the Primrose, is 

 interesting, not merely from 

 its beauty, but from its im- 

 perfectly exhibiting the cha- 

 racters of the order. In the 

 Primulacece there is gene- 

 rally a well-formed and large 



corolla, as is sufficiently obvious in the various kinds 

 of Primrose, Auricula, and Polyanthus. In Glaux that 

 organ is wholly wanting, but a coloured calyx supplies 



