194 UMBELLiFEE^. [Sanicula. 



1. E. maritimum, L. Sea-side Eryngo. Sea Holly. " Radi- 

 cal leaves roundish plaited spinous stalked, upper ones lobed pal- 

 mate amplexicaul rigid, involucral leaves 3-lobed longer than the 

 heads, scales of the receptacle 3-cleft." — Br. Fl. p. 160. E. B. 

 t. 718. 



/3. Flowers, stem and leaves pale rose-colonv. 



On sandy or shingly sea-beach. W. July, August, i^r. October. If. 



E. Med. — On the Dover, Ryde, very sparingly, nor have I seen it there at all 

 of late. Most abundant and luxuriant amongst the hills of loose sand on St. 

 Helen's spit. Sandown bay (towards Shanklin). Shore near E. Cowes, Mr. 

 Snooke. 



W. Med. — West side of the mouth of the Newtown river, plentifully. Spit at 

 Norton, by Yarmouth, also in plenty. 



/3. St. Helen's spit, rare. 



Boot pale brown, whitish within, woody in the centre, brittle and cylindrical, 

 running- straight down in the sand to a great depth, and branching below the sur- 

 face into a kind of underground stem or rhizoma. Stems very stout, rounded, 

 solid, brittle, much branched, furrowed and leafy, whitish and tinned or shaded 

 with purplish blue or rose-red, erect, ascending or partly decumbent, forming- a 

 large bushy plant 1 or 2 feet high and 3 or 4 in diameter, formidably armed with 

 extremely acute spines or prickles. Radical leaves or those of the first year sub- 

 reniform, on long rounded footstalks with shealliing bases, pale glaucous green, 

 .'5-li)bed, the lobes waved and plaited, those on the stem sessile, semiamplexicaul, 

 roundish, 3 — 5 lobed, the lower alternate, those at the forks, from whence the 

 peduncles spiing, three together, strongly reticulated on both sides with white 

 veins, and more or less suffused with the red or blue colour of the stem, all of them, 

 like those of the root, extremely stiff and rigid, waved or plaited, their while car- 

 tilaginous edges sinuato-dentate, with very sharp pungent spines. Heads of 

 flowers roundish ovate or shortly conical, on long, stout, deeply furrowed pedun- 

 cles in the upper forks of the branches or terminal, each head with an involucre 

 of 5 — 7 large, unequal, somewhat ovate, and spinous leaves, which are longer than 

 the flower-heads and 3- or5-toothed. Floivers numerous, purplish blue, sessile, on 

 an oblong fleshy torus or receptacle, with a tricuspidate bract or palea under each 

 and about their owu length. Ca(?/a;-segments ovato-lanceolate, erect, with a sin- 

 gle stout white rib ending in a spine, and pale membranous edges. Petals oblong, 

 erect, with very long inflexed points. Stamens much exserted, (he'ii fllaments 

 blue, inflexed in their upper part, after the discharge of the pollen erect ; anthers 

 oblong. Styles upright, a little compressed and channelled beneath, purplish, 

 placed in a depression on their circular bases (stylopodia), which are covered with 

 minute papillae, and notched round their margins to receive the claws of the petals 

 and base of the stamens. Carpels rather large, tawny brown, ovate, tapering 

 below ; mericarps coiky, much compressed, crowned with the rigid very pungent 

 calyx-teeth, bristly on their outer face, quite sniooth and plane on their inner ; 

 carpophore obsolete. Seed ovate, brownish and flattened, with a slight hollow or 

 groove on its inner face and covered with a thin pellicle. 



The var. /3. is an elegant one, with flowers of a delicate pink or rose-colour, suf- 

 fused over the involucres and the nerves and edges of the leaves, the upper part 

 of both stem and branches being tinged and speckled with the same colour. 



II. Floivers umbellate. 



A. Umbels simple or imperfectly compound. 



II. Sanicula, Linn. Sanicle. 



" Fruit ovate, densely clothed -with hooked prickles. Calyx- 

 teeth leafy. Petals erect, obovate, with long inflected poiats. 

 (Some flowers abortive)." — Br. Fl. 



