Statice.] PLUMBAGINEJL 177 



naceous. Petals 5, united at the base, bearing the stamens. 

 Capsule with one seed invested with the calyx. Name from 

 <naTigu>, to stop, from its supposed qualities in checking dy- 

 sentery. Pentandria. Pentagynia. 



* Flowers collected into a rounded head. (Armeria, De Cand.) 



1. S. Armeria, Linn. Common Thrift, or Sea Gilliflower. 

 Leaves linear ; scape simple, bearing a rounded head ; awns of 

 the calyx short. Br. FL 1. p. 145. E. FL v. ii. p. 115. E. 

 Bot. t. 226. 



Muddy sea-shores, among rocks by the sea-side, and on the tops of 

 the highest mountains in Kerry. Fl. July, Aug. T. Leaves all ra- 

 dical, numerous. Heads of flowers rose-coloured, intermixed with 

 scales and having, besides, a brown, membranous, 3-leaved involucre, 

 terminating below in a sheathing, jagged covering to the upper part of 

 the scape. 



* # Flowers unilateral on apaniculated scape. (Taxanthema, 



Neck. Br.) 



2. S. Limonium, Linn. Common Sea Lavender. Leaves 

 elliptic-lanceolate, stalked, mucronate, single-ribbed ; scape 

 angular, with a much branched spreading corymb at the top ; 

 calyx with deep acute plaited segments and intermediate 

 teeth. Br. FL 1. p. 145. E. Fl. v. ii. p. 116. E. Bot. t. 

 102. 



Muddy shores in various parts of the country. Plentiful on the 

 shore near Baldoyle, &c. Fl. July, Aug., 1. Leaves two or three 

 inches long, leathery, somewhat glaucous. Panicle spreading, alter- 

 nately branched. Flowers small, imbricated, blue, each sheathed in a 

 green tubular bractea. 



3. S. spathulata, Desf. Upright-spiked Sea Lavender. 

 Leaves spathulate, with a short mucro, glaucous, 3-ribbed at 

 the base ; scape branched from below the middle ; panicle 

 elongated ; branches distichous ; spikes erect; calyx with plane 

 blunt segments without intermediate teeth. Br. Fl. 1. p. 145. 

 Sims, in Bot. Mag. #.1617. S. Limonium, /3. E. Fl. v. ii. p. 

 116. S. retieulata. Hook. Scot. 1. p. 97. Mackays Cat. p f 

 35. 



Gravelly bank on the shore near Baldoyle, with the last, and at Port- 

 marnock ; also on rocks by the sea on the south side of the hill of 

 Howth ; Killiney-Hill, and many places on the Kerry coast. FL Aug. 

 1. From three inches to a foot high. Leaves from one to two and a 

 half inches long, coriaceous, with a white border extending from the base 

 of the petiole to the upper extremity. Panicle more compact than in 

 the last ; spikes erect, with larger flowers. The smaller states of this 

 species very much resemble S. retieulata of E. Bot. hence the mistake 

 that several other Botanists as well as myself have fallen into concern- 

 ing it. 



Y 



