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FORMS OF SALSOLA KALI. 

 By 0. E. Salmon, F.L.S. 



In this Journal for 1904, p. 26, Mr. G. C. Druce mentions that 

 he found S. Kali var. tenui folia Moq.-Tand. at Southwick, Sussex, 

 in 1900, growing with Atriplex rosea, and considered that both were 

 introduced plants. This was undoubtedly the case as to the latter, 

 which was found there many years ago (see Arnold, PL Suss. 67, 

 1887), but Mr. T. Hilton, who accompanied Mr. Druce when the 

 plants were found and knows every inch of the coast between 

 Shoreham and Brighton, thinks the localities are confused in Mr. 

 Druce's notes. A. rosea grew near the harbour, Shoreham, amongst 

 rubbish, and has since disappeared; but the Salsola occurred in 

 quite a different spot, and was not associated with aliens or other 

 rubbish-heap undesirables. 



As I wished to see more of the plant than dried examples 

 offered, I paid a visit to the locality in August last with Mr. Hilton 

 and Eev. E. Ellman. We were pleased to find the variety men- 

 tioned by Mr. Druce growing in some plenty with the type, from 

 which it appeared to differ in being softer to the touch, in its long 

 slender leaves (an inch or more), and in being apparently uniformly 

 glabrous or nearly so. There seems no reason whatever to doubt 

 its being just as much a native as the Atriplex laciniata with which 

 it was associated in sandy ground. 



It is not easy to find a satisfactory name for the specimens 

 gathered, owing to the divergence of opinion existing in books. 



Looking up first Mr. Druce's suggested name, " Var. tenuifolia 

 Moq.-Tand.," the original description in DO. Prodr. xiii. part 2, 

 188 (1849), is as follows : H Suberecta, aspera aut glabra, viridis, 

 foliis longis tenuibus subfiliformibus, alis brevibus pallide roseis 

 Folia interdum 4 poll, longa." This diagnosis does not seem to 

 fit our plant very satisfactorily, as the leaves, though narrow, can 

 hardly be called " subfiliform," but it fits uncommonly well the 

 plant distributed by the Watson Exchange Club in 1900, and 

 recorded in the 1899-1900 Report, p. 18, as " S. Kali L. var. 

 Tragus DC. Waste ground west of the Docks, towards Hessle, 

 Hull, E. Yorks, v.-c. 61. Identified at Kew. Oct. 1899. C. 

 Waterfall." 



The original description of S. Tragus L. (L. Sp. PL ed. ii. 322 

 (1763)), "foliis spinosis kevibus," agrees with the Sussex plant; 

 it is placed by Moquin under his S. Kali Ten. ft Tragus — " sub- 

 erecta glabra viridis, alis subbrevibus subroseis vel roseis (S. Tragus 

 L.). — Interdum alas dilatatse et brevissime in eodem caule (var. 



mixta Koch)." 



The common form of S. Kali in Britain appears to be scabrid. 

 Syme (Eng. Bot. ed. 3, viii. 4) says, "Plant (in the form which 

 occurs in Britain) with the stem and margins of the leaves clothed 

 with cartilaginous spreading hairs " ; Hooker says (Stud. FL 343), 

 "pubescent or scabrid"; and Babington (Man. 351), "minutely 

 hairy." This would seem to be the 8. Kali Ten. a hirta Ten. 



