208 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



roots. The pickle that is generally sold in 

 the oil-shops of London as samphire, is not 

 even a species of the same plant, but is the 

 marine plant Salicornia, jointed glass wort, 

 saltwort, or crabgrass. 



This plant is found growing in most sea- 

 marshes, and, being easily procured on many 

 parts of the coast, has been substituted for 

 the rock samphire. Many acres of the 

 beach near the mouth of the river Adur, 

 in Sussex, are covered with this herb, from 

 whence the Author of this work has often 

 procured it for pickle, but which he found 

 more ornamental than excellent. 



This plant is also called Kali or Alkali, 

 from the Arabic. It is from the ashes of 

 this plant that the salt called alkali is ex- 

 tracted, which being mixed with a fine sort 

 of sand, makes the glass called crystal. It 

 grows in great abundance in Egypt and 

 Syria, and is cultivated in Languedoc and 

 Provence by the farmers, who plant whole 

 fields of it to good purpose ; for the soda or 

 kelp they make is exported to Italy, where 

 the Venetians manufacture it into those beau- 

 tiful glasses so much esteemed. 



The ashes of this maritime vegetable, made 



