ST A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



ST A 



625 



15. Statice Tetragona; Square-stalked Sea Lavender. 

 Scape panicled, four-cornered ; leaves ovate. Native of the 

 Cape. 



16. Statice Reticulata ; Matted Sea Lavender. Scape 

 panicled, prostrate, flexuose ; lower branches barren ; leaves 

 wedge-shaped, awnless. Root strong, woody, and perennial; 

 flowers few together, in simple terminating spikes or bundles, 

 erect, each enveloped in three or four larger blunt bractes. 

 The ribs of the calix and the petals are of a bright purplish 

 blue, which turns white in drying. Native of the south of 

 France, and of Malta. Found also on the east coast of 

 England, particularly in Norfolk, especially about Wells, 

 Cley, and Holkham, where it covers many acres of muddy 

 salt marshes in July and August with its blue flowers. There 

 are several varieties. 



17. Statice Echioides; Rough-leaved Sea Lavender. Scape 

 panicled, round, jointed ; leaves rugged. This is an annual 

 or biennial plant; stalks about eight inches high, dividing 

 into two or three small branches, which are terminated by 

 short reflexed spikes of pale blue flowers coming out late in 

 August, and seldom perfecting seeds in England. Native 

 of the south of Europe, and of rocks near Mascar in Barbary. 

 The seeds of this, with the next, and the thirty-fourth species, 

 must be obtained from abroad, and sown in autumn, that 

 the plants may come up in the following spring. They 

 should have a border of loamy earth, not stiff nor moist, and 

 exposed to the south ; but when the sun is warm, the border 

 should be shaded with mats, to prevent the earth from drying 

 too fast. When the plants come up, they must be kept 

 clean from weeds ; and should they grow too close, some of 

 them must be taken out as soon as they are fit to remove, and 

 planted in small pots, shading them until they have taken 

 new root. Then place them where they can enjoy the morn- 

 ing sun in autumn ; when they should be put into a hot-bed 

 frame, where they may be screened from hard frost, but 

 enjoy the free air in mild weather; and those plants which are 

 left in the border, must be covered with mats in hard frost, 

 for though they will often live through the winter in mild 

 seasons, yet hard frost always destroys them : in the next 

 summer they will flower, and ripen seed if the season prove 

 warm and dry, soon after which the roots decay. 



18. Statice Speciosa ; Plantain-leaved Sea Lavender. 

 Scape branched, round; branches ancipital, winged; flowers 

 imbricate; leaves obovute, cusped, mucronate, cartilaginous 

 at the edge. The whole plant has a bitterish salt taste. The 

 root is biennial, and the calices undivided. It flowers in July 

 and August. Native of Russia. See the 17th species. 



19. Statice Tatarica; Tartarian Sea Lavender. Scape 

 branched, divaricating; branches three-sided; flowers dis- 

 tant; leaves lanceolate-obovate, mucronate; stalks five or 

 six inches high ; branchlets terminated by spikes of pale blue 

 flowers ranged on one side the footstalk: the whole, when 

 growing, being spread wide, has somewhat the appearance 

 of an umbel of flowers. Native of Russia. 



20. Statice Echinus ; Prickly Mountain Thrift. Scape 

 panicled ; leaves subulate, mucronate. The long and nod- 

 ding black root is crowned with dense tufted leafy stems and 

 branches, two or three inches high; flowers of a bright pink, 

 very beautiful, three or four together, in terminal solitary 

 spikes. Native of Greece. 



J21. Statice Flexuosa. Scape dichotomous; corymb fasti- 

 ate; spikes headed; leaves lanceolate, wedge-shaped, 

 obtuse, mucronate, three-nerved. Native of Siberia. 



22. Statice Purpurata. Stem shrubby, leafy ; leaves obo- 

 vate-cuneate, three-nerved, mucronate; corollas purplish. 

 Native of the Cape. 





23. Statice Longifolia. Stem panicked,' rugged, erect; 

 leaves obovate-linear. Native of the Cape. 



24. Statice Minuta. Stem sufl'ruticose, leafy; leaves clus- 

 tered, wedge-shaped, smooth, awnless; scapes few-flowered. 

 Native of the shores of the Mediterranean. 



25. Statice Pectinata; Triangular-stalked Sea Lavender. 

 Stem and branches panicled, three-sided ; leaves obovatr. 

 petioled; spikes directed one way. It flowers in September 

 and October. Native of the Cape. This, and the two fol- 

 lowing shrubby plants, are too tender to live through the 

 winter in the open air of England ; so that the plants must 

 be removed into shelter in the autumn, but they only require 

 protection from hard frost, and may be placed along with 

 Myrtles, Oleanders, and other hardy green-house plants, 

 where they often continue to flower during great part of the 

 winter, and make a pretty variety. They are easily propa- 

 gated by cuttings, which, if planted in July on a shady bor 

 der, and duly watered, will take root in six or seven weeks, 

 when they should be taken up, and planted into pots rilled 

 with light loamy earth / placing them in the shade till they 

 have taken root; they may be exposed till October, and then 

 removed into shelter. 



26. Statice Suffruticosa; Narrow-leaved Shrubby Sea La- 

 vender. Stem shrubby, naked, and branched at top; heads 

 sessile ; leaves lanceolate, sheathing. It flowers most part 

 of the summer in Siberia, where it is a native. 



27. Statice Monopetala; Broad-leaved Shrubby Sea Laven- 

 der. Stem shrubby, leafy; flowers solitary; leaves lanceo- 

 late, sheathing: it flowers from June till August, but never 

 produces seeds in England. Native of Sicily ; where there is 

 a variety which bears galls like those upon the Oak; found 

 also in Barbary, near Kerwan. 



28. Statice Axillaris ; Axil-flowering Sea Lavender. Stem 

 shrubby, leafy ; panicles spiked, axillary ; leaves lanceolate, 

 sheathing; flowers minute. Native of Arabia. 



29. Statice Cylindrifolia; Cylinder-leaved Sea Lavender. 

 Stem shrubby, leafy, dichotomous; leaves round, sheathing. 

 Native of Arabia and Northern Africa. 



30. Statice Linifolia ; Flax-leaved Sea Lavender. Stem 

 shrubby, prostrate; flowers panicled, directed one way; 

 leaves linear. Native of the Cape. 



31. Statice Aurea ; Golden-cupped Sea Lavender. Stem 

 shrubby, leafed, branched ; leaves awl-shaped. Native of 

 Dauria, in mountainous pastures. 



32. Statice Ferulacea; Cut-leaved Sea Lavender. Stem 

 shrubby, branched ; branchlets imbricate, with chaffs ter- 

 minated by hair ; flowers subimbricate, ascending, directed 

 one way, yellow. Native of Spain, Portugal, and Barbary. 



33. Statice Pruinosa; Frosty Sea Lavender. Stem flex- 

 uose, branched, scurfy; branches alternate, shorter than the 

 stern. Native of Palestine. 



34. Statice Sinuata ; Scallop-leaved Thrift. Stem herba- 

 ceous, ancipital; root-leaves lyrate ; stem-leaves linear. Stems 

 decumbent, a span long, branched, with leafy wings, and 

 whorls of narrow acute loaves, about an inch long. These 

 are terminated by panicles of flowers, which sit upon 

 winged peduncles, each sustaining three or four flowers of a 

 light blue colour, which continue long without fading. It 

 flowers in July and August; but unless the summer is warm 

 and dry, the seeds do not ripen in England. This is one of 

 those few plants which have calices of a more beautiful colour 

 than their corollas ; and which colour does not fade in drying : 

 the dried flowers are therefore an ornament in winter. Native 

 of Sicily and the Levant, Spain, and the sandy sea-shores of 

 Barbary. There are several varieties. See the 17th species. 



35. Statice Lobata. Leaves sinuate; stems round, leafless. 



