SEA ROCKET 175 



for the shoots and leaves pushing 1 up from below ground. It was first 

 employed in the garden about 200 years ago, and the practice was 

 also afterwards copied on the Continent. In the garden it is sown 

 in rich sandy soil, blanched and covered up to promote a quick and 

 white growth (to improve the flavour) under pots, kale pots being 

 now the vogue. The roots are taken up, and forced in a hot-bed or 

 forcing-house, or covered with straw, &c., in the open like rhubarb, 

 a frame being placed over the stools before the litter is put on. It 

 is easily forced, and is productive the first season after sowing seed. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



38. Crambe maritima, L. Stem erect, tall, leaves sinuate, broad, 

 glaucous, pinnatifid, dentate, flowers corymbose, white, pods ovoid, 

 large, on slender suberect pedicels. 



Sea Rocket (Cakile maritima, Scop.) 



Though this plant is not found in any deposit in England it occurs 

 in the Oak Zone abroad. It is confined to the North Temperate 

 Zone, and found in Europe, N. Africa, and Ireland. It is absent from 

 S. Lines, Renfrew, \Y. Ross, but is found on every other British coast- 

 line directly open to the sea up to Shetland. It is also found in 

 Ireland and in the Channel Islands. 



Like Sea Kale, Sea Rocket, which is associated with it, is fond 

 of sand and shingle, and it forms fairly wide patches in company with 

 Samphire, Thrift, Sea Lavender, Seaside Bindweed, Sea Plantain, 

 Saltwort, maritime sedges and rushes, &c. 



Like Sea Kale, again, the Sea Rocket is a bushy, compact, shrubby 

 plant, with branched stems, the branches being arranged in a zigzag 

 manner. It is also fleshy, and has bluish -green leaves, in this case 

 more linear-pinnatifid, or with the lobes divided nearly to the base, or 

 else quite entire. It is quite smooth, and has much the same appear- 

 ance and habit as a broccoli. According to Lesage the leaves of other 

 plants when grown inland may become fleshy if treated with salt. 



The flowers are white, or purple, or lilac, in corymbs, and the 

 flower-stalk is strong. The upper portion of the pod is spindle-shaped, 

 the two joints are angular, the lower joint is smaller than the upper, 

 the former being erect. The latter is pendent, and has two teeth at 

 the base. The pods are square in section, and when ripe are ribbed. 



The plant grows to a height of 9 in. or i ft. It is in flower from 

 June to September. It is annual and reproduced by seed. 



The anthers of the long stamens project slightly, and as pollen may 



