SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 37 



the spreading halberd-leaved orache (Atriplex 

 patula) is also very, frequent, growing, indeed, 

 everywhere, but becoming, when near the sea, 

 much more succulent and reddish in tint. Its 

 leaves are, when not thus red, of a dull green 

 and mealy surface ; and their triangular forms, 

 lobed at the base, are well expressed by the 

 specific name. Then there is the grass-leaved 

 orache (Atriplex. littoralis), with its grass-like foli- 

 age, found chiefly on the east coast in muddy salt 

 marshes; and the stalked sea orache (Atriplex 

 pedunculata) , with its zigzag stem and spreading 

 branches, which flourishes on the muddy salt 

 marshes of the east and south-eastern coasts 

 of England, and is well known to botanists by 

 the scaly mealiness with which the whole plant is 

 covered. It is sometimes found on the muddy 

 shores of rivers, and Sir J. E. Smith gathered it 

 from the borders of the Ouse, just below Lynn. 

 It is occasionally cooked for food, but unless cut 

 while very young the stalks beconie tough and 

 unfit for use. The tall shrubby orache, which we 

 often see cultivated in our gardens for its beautiful 

 silver-coloured foliage, is, when wild, a maritime 

 plant, and is brought from the shores of Southern 

 Europe ; and one species of this plant, called the 

 garden orache, or mountain spinach, was formerly 

 cultivated as a culinary herb. Several species are 

 valued on the Continent as edible vegetables ; and 

 in the neighbourhood of Paris the orache is planted 

 to a great extent for the Paris market. 



It is difficult, by description, to convey to the 

 unscientific reader any idea of the appearance 

 either of the orache, or its ally the goosefoot. 

 These plants are very similar to each other, not 



