146 LETTER XXXIX. 



name is Glass-icort (Salicornia), to be leafless and 

 flowerless, with nothing but jointed brittle stems ; for 

 its shoots really look as if they were fonned only 

 of joints of different lengths strung together. Upon 

 looking, however, at the upper end of the joints you 

 will find that each has a pair of opposite slightly pro- 

 minent expansions, which stand in the room of leaves; 

 and at the end of some of the shoots these expansions 

 are closer together, more evident, connected with 

 shorter joints, and altogether produce the appearance 

 of slender cones. Still no flowers meet the eye. But 

 above each of the joints of the cones, you may remark 

 three minute scales, placed in such a way as to form a 

 triangle ; if with a fine pointed instrument you gently 

 remove one of the scales, you will find below it, in a 

 little niche, an ovary with a short ragged stigma, and 

 one or, occasionally, two stamens. This is the flower, 

 of which the external scale is all that remains to represent 

 the calvx. The seed and seed-vessel are something 

 like those of Chenopodium, only the former is hairy. 



In Salicornia the ordinary structure of the order is, 

 you perceive, interfered with, by the imperfect forma- 

 tion of the leaves and calyx, by the number of stamens 

 being fewer than usual, and by the peculiar structure 

 of the jointed stems. In some other genera the aspect 

 of the plants is changed by a curious peculiarity in 

 the calyx ; in one plant, when the seed is ripe, that 

 part is succulent, and richly coloured with crimson, 

 and as the flowers grow in compact clusters, the 

 calyxes, readily adhering, form small balls, with 

 much the appearance of Strawberries, whence such 



