140 ENGLISH BOTAXY. 



shore. It forms hedges and little plantations close to the sea; and we can speak wit4i 

 certainty of its vigour and beauty at Felixstowe, in Sufiolk, and the neighbouring coast, 

 not only enlivening the eye with its bright green foliage, but adding its delicate little 

 flowers to its other attractions till late in the year. Some remarkable sjiecimens of 

 aged trunks of this plant are still to be seen in the garden at Landguard Fort, at the 

 extreme corner of the county of Suffolk, on the estuary of the Orwell. It is by no 

 means confined to our English coasts, or to recent times. The Tamarisk was known 

 to the Greeks by the name of fivpiicri {viurike), and to the Latins as tainarix. In 

 France and in the South of Europe, in favourable situations, another species of thia 

 genus grows luxuriantly, and attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet ; but there are 

 instances both in Britain and the Continent of its attaining thirty feet. In Russia and 

 the South of Tartary another species is very abundant, and a decoction of the young 

 twigs is used by the Tartars in case of rheumatism and bruises : the handles of whips 

 are made of the wood. In France and Italy it is greedily eaten by sheep, on account, 

 perhiip-i, of its saltish taste, l^fr. Loudon tells us that there is a shrub of Tamarisk in 

 Lady Tankerville's garden at Walton-on-Tliames which is thirty feet high. We can 

 scarcely expect that our old herbalist ancestors, who were perhaps botanists in a crude 

 state, should overlook the oriental name and reputation of this plant without finding 

 great virtues in it. Uioscorides teacheth, according to Gerarde, that " the decoction of 

 the leaves made with wine doth waste the spleen, and that the same is good against 

 toothache ;" both most valuable properties, could they be relied on. Gerarde confirms 

 all that Dioscorides asserted about this plant, and adds a suggestion ■which has been 

 revived in later days in the form of the " bitter cup," made of quassia wood, which we 

 see in chemists' shops. He says : " If ale or beere be continually drunke forth of a 

 cup or dish made of the wood or timber of Tamariske, it is of great efKcacie." 



OUDER XV.— ELATINACE^. 



Creeping or cliffitse aquatic herbs (or more rarely under- 

 slirubs), with opposite or verticellate entire or serrate leaves, with 

 small scarious stipules. Elowers small, white or rose-colour, 

 regular, perfect, axillary, solitary or in cymose fascicles. Sepals 

 2 to 5, free or slightly united at the base, imbricated, persistent. 

 Petals as many as the sepals, hypogynous, free, imbricated. Disk 

 none. Stamens as many as the petals (or twice as many), hypo- 

 gynous, free. Anthers 2-celled. Ovary free, with as many cells 

 as there are sepals. Styles as many as the cells of the ovary, 

 short, witli capitate stigmas. Placentaj on the inner angles of 

 the cells. Ovules numerous, anatropous. Capsule with as many 

 valves as there are styles, splitting away in a more or less septi- 

 fragal manner from a central columella. Seeds straight or curved. 

 Albumen none. Eadicle near the hilum. 



