160 COMMON THRIFT. 



soil; and far up the cliff on the sea-shore, it 

 blooms among the crevices, often to be seen 

 by no eye save that of the wild sea-bird, whose 

 nest is perched in some cavity near it. It 

 flourishes, too, on elevated inland mountains. 

 When it is a plant of the saline soil, it pos- 

 sesses iodine and salts of soda ; but when it 

 grows inland, it loses the iodine, and exchanges 

 soda for potash. 



The genus Statice was named from the 

 Greek word, to stop ; either because the tang- 

 ling stems would arrest the footstep, or that 

 some of the plants were supposed to arrest 

 disease. It, however, appears originally to 

 have belonged to another genus. There are 

 besides the Thrift, three British species, which 

 are not very similar to it, and are called Sea 

 Lavander, from their lilac-tinted flowers. 



