SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 13 



gling; and it is distinguished by having a per- 

 ennial stem, which, at the lower part, is quite 

 woody, and about a foot long. It grows some- 

 times on the edge of a low muddy bank depending 

 from thence ; but it is a rare plant. It has been 

 found in the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent, and also on 

 the Norfolk and Sussex coasts. The botanic name 

 of the genus, taken from salt and a horn, is very 

 expressive of the nature and form of the plants. 



But the abundance of soda yielded by several 

 sea-side vegetables is in none greater than in the 

 genus of plants called Salsola, by botanists, one of 

 which is the prickly-saltwort of our shores. These 

 plants, like the samphire and marsh samphire, are 

 pickled with vinegar and eaten at table. The 

 various uses of soda have rendered some species 

 of this genus of considerable importance ; and our 

 only native kind was once much valued for the 

 alkaline salts yielded by its ashes. Carbonate of 

 soda has, however, of late years, been obtained 

 from common and rock salt, so that the impure soda 

 once procured from sea-weeds, and called kelp, and 

 the more valuable barilla yielded by the soda plants, 

 are no longer in request in this country. The 

 prickly saltwort (Salsola Kali) is a spreading plant, 

 with awl-shaped leaves, tipped with spines, and an 

 angular stem with pale greenish flowers growing 

 close down upon it. It blossoms in July, and grows 

 very generally among the sands of the shore. This 

 species is not a native of our coasts only, but is 

 plentiful on most sandy shores in all parts of the 

 world, and its value in producing soda is very 

 generally known. The species of saltwort called 

 the round-leaved saltwort (Salsola sativa) was 

 cultivated very extensively in southern Europe, 



