O BATIS MARITIMA. 



Within the limits of the United States, this plant has been found only in the 

 stations here noticed. It is probable that Tampa Bay, the latitude of which is 

 about 33°, is the northern limit of its range. 



In Cai'thagena, and some other places where it abomids, the plant is burned for 

 the sake of an impure carbonate of soda contained in its ashes. It is also used 

 for picldes. 



Tiie plant is commonly prostrate, with numerous branches, which spread on the 

 ground to the extent of three or four feet. Every part of it is quite glabrous, and 

 of a strong saline taste. The leaves are opposite, about an inch in length, 

 oblong-linear, narrowed downwards, and very fleshy. They are flattish above and 

 rounded underneath, and are without stipules. The staminate and pistillate 

 flowers are on different individuals, and both kinds are disposed in dense, 

 oblong, four-rowed spikes, which are solitary and sessile in the axils of the leaves. 

 They are about one third or a quarter of an inch long. In the staminate spikes 

 there are from twelve to sixteen flowers, each subtended by a roundish or broadly 

 cordate and somewhat persistent scale or bract. The calyx is a little cup, con- 

 sisting of two sepals, which are anterior and posterior with respect to the axis, 

 and are united below the middle. The cup is compressed and somewhat two- 

 lipped ; the lower lip slightly cucullate and cristate transversely just below the 

 margin. There are four unguiculate white petals, with the limb rhombic-ovate, 

 erose-denticulate on the margin, and abruptly narrowed at the base into a claw 

 which is nearly as long as the limb. Alternating with the petals, and about equal 

 to them in length, are four stamens. The filaments are subulate and glabrous ; 

 the anthers yellow, oblong, fixed by the middle, two-celled, introrse, with a longi- 

 tudinal dehiscence. The pollen is simple and spherical. There is no trace of a 

 pistil. The fertile spikes are seldom more than eight or ten-flowered, and are fur- 

 nished with bracts simdar to those of the sterile flowers, but which are much more 

 caducous. There are no floral envelopes, nor even rudimentary stamens. The 

 ovaries of all the flowers in one spike grow together, except at their upper part, 

 and perhaps the bases of the bracts are united with them. Each ovary is four- 

 celled, in all my specimens, but there are five and six cells represented in the 

 figure of Lindle)\* In each cell there is a single anatropous ovule, which is 

 supported on a long stalk that rises from the base. There is no style, and the 

 thick, capitate, pubescent stigma is slightly two-lobed. The fruit is half an inch 

 or more in length, and is composed of from eight to twelve drupaceous pericarps, 

 which are united into an oblong, obtuse, fleshy, tuberculate head. Each pericarp is 

 four-celled, with a single seed in each cell. The endocarp is tough and coria- 

 ceous. Until its nature was determined by Lindley, it had always been mistaken 

 for the testa. The seed is oblong and nearly straight, erect, with a thin and 

 membranaceous testa, and is destitute of albumen. The embryo is conformed to 

 the seed, with fleshy oblong cotyledons, and a short, somewhat oblique radicle 

 which is placed next the hilum. 



Only a single species of Batis is known. Lindley has ascertained that the East 

 Indian shrubs referred to this genus by Roxburgh and Wallich have no aflSnity with 



* Vegetable Kingdom, p. 286. 



