UMBELLIFER^E. 95 



| to 1 inch across. Flowers sessile, whitish, £ inch across. Calyx- 

 tube thickly clothed with soft cartilaginous bristles ; calyx-td'tli 

 lanceolate acuminate, with a strong central nerve excurrent in a 

 spine. Petals erect, shorter than the calyx-teeth, slightly notched, 

 with a long indexed lobe. Stamens incurved. Styles elongated, 

 slightly curved outwards. Cremocarp •§• inch long, without ribs, 

 sparingly clothed with paleaceous bristles, crowned by the calyx- 

 teeth, which are nearly as long as the cremocarp ; mericarps with a 

 corky expansion on each side, which makes them wider from side 

 to side than from back to front, separating readily from each other 

 when ripe, showing no indications of a columella. Plant intensely 

 glaucous, tinged with blue towards the top, especially on the invo- 

 lucres and flower-heads ; leaves cartilaginous. 



Sca-ITolhj. 



French, Panicaitt Maritime. German, Meerslrands .Ifannertreu. 



This plant is sometimes called Sea-Hulver and Sea-Holme. It abounds on most 

 sandy sea-shores, and is very plentiful on the Eastern coast. According to Linnreus, 

 the young flowering-shoots, when boiled and eaten like asparagus, are very palatable 

 and nourishing. The leaves are sweetish, with a slight aromatic warm pungency. The 

 roots are said to have the same virtues as those of the Orchis tribe. They are sold in 

 some places in a candied form, and are regarded by the Arabs as an excellent restorative. 

 They are said to have been prepared in this manner by one Robert Burton, an apothe- 

 cary of Colchester, in the seventeenth century ; but the roots were in use long before, 

 and we are told that the " kissing-comfits " alluded to by Falstaff were made of them. 

 Dioscorides recommends them as a remedy in flatulence. 



SPECIES IT.— ERYNGIUM CAMPESTRE. Linn. 



Plate DLXX. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Ilelv. Vol. XXI. Tab. 1852. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsiec. No. 2474. 



Radical leaves stalked, deltoid or rhomboidal, not decurrent 

 or decurrent, very deeply pinnatifid (almost pinnate), undulated ; 

 lower segments pinnatifid and coarsely spinous-serrate, the upper- 

 most ones only coarsely spinous-serrate ; upper stem-leaves sessile, 

 amplexicaul, deeply pinnatifid. Involucre of 5 to 7 strapshaped 

 acuminate entire or spinous- pinnatifid spinous - pointed leaves, 

 much longer than the flowers. Bract of each separate flower 

 spinous, entire, or tricuspid with the lateral spines erect-ascending, 

 much longer than the calyx. 



In dry waste places. Hare, and possibly not native. Near 

 Plymouth, Devon; Weston-super-Mare, Somerset; Tyne ballast- 

 hills, Durham ; and banks of the Taff, near Cardiff, Glamorgan- 



