CLASS V. ORDER V. J STATICE. 451 



slender, much branched in a pauiculated manner from near the base ; 

 the branches slender, much divided, and malted together, the lower 

 ones barren ; flowers crowded -, calyx with angular teeth ; leaves spa- 

 tulate, small, without points. 



English Botany, t. 328. English Flora, vol. i. p. 117. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 149. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 171. 



Root of several stout branches, tough and woody, crowned with the 

 crowded withered remains of old leaves, and mostly bearing several 

 stems. Scape erect, roughish, with small prominent glands, round, 

 branched from near the base, the branches slender, alternate, much 

 divided, zig-zag, and above matted together, the lower branches always 

 barren. Bracteas small, ovate, acute, pale, thin, membranous, one at 

 the division of each branch, and closely embracing it. Leaves all 

 radical, small, spatulale, tapering at the base into a footstalk of variable 

 length, channeled above, the apex rounded or acute, without a point 

 or bristle, single ribbed. Inflorescence a much branched corymbose 

 panicle, of slender zig-zag matted branches, the lower ones ban-en, 

 and mostly reflexed. Flowers small, a pale blueish purple colour, 

 much crowded, in small erect one sided tufts, each having at its base 

 about four ovate obtuse scales, green, with membranous margins, or 

 entirely membranous. Calyx funnel-shaped, with a short tube, with 

 five stout ribs, of a reddish colour, tapering into about the middle of 

 the segments of the limb, smooth, or with a few pale erect hairs at the 

 lower part, and sometimes there are small short intermediate ribs, the 

 limb pale, membranous, with five angular teeth. Corolla small, of 

 five ovate petals, tapering into a claw. Stamens from the base of the 

 petal, with a slender Jilament, shorter than the petal, and a small 

 roundish anther, yellow. Style and stigmas filiform, as long as the 

 stamens. Capsule small, ovate, enclosed in the persistent calyx. Seed 

 solitary. 



Habitat. Muddy salt marshes; rare. Chiefly on the coast of 

 Norfolk; between St. Peter's Point and the Washway below Wisbeach, 

 and at Long Sutton Wash. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



This is a smaller and more slender spreading plant than either of 

 the above species. Its delicate much branched and entangled inflo- 

 rescence is very remarkable ; this, with numerous of the lower barren 

 branches reflexed, readily distinguish it at first sight from the other 

 species. It is seldom more than three inches high, sometimes, how- 

 ever, it is six. Small spreading branched specimens of S. spatulata 

 have been mistaken for this plant, but they will be found very different 

 in many respects, especially in the leaf and calyx. 



VOL. i. 



