408 PLUMB aginacEjE. [Statice. 



it was long supposed that the present was the only species of the genus. A few 

 others are now enumerated by systematic writers, one of which, a maive of North 

 America and long confounded with our European plant, is the S . flnribundus of 

 Kuuth. This, which I gathered plentifully about New Orleans in 1847, differs 

 widely in its much- diffusely-branched stem; shorter, less erect and subp.tniciilate 

 racemes ; in its very slender, filiform, more spreading and generally straighter 

 pedicels; and in its much smaller flowers and capsules, the former very minute, 

 scarcely half the size of /S. Valerandi, the corolla but little exceeding the calyx in 

 length. 



The leaves are described as obtuse, and so they often are, but in the plant as I 

 find it at Carrollton, near the city just mentioned, all the leaves, even the very 

 lowest, are more or less acute, the middle and upper obovato-lanceolate and very 

 distinctly pointed, of a thin and membranaceous texture, and bright, lucid and 

 somewhar shining green. 



The S. Fafcranrfi of ' Flora Cestrica' evidently belongs to S. floHbundus, and 

 the specific characters of the former must be amended. 



Order LXI. PLUMBAGINACE^, Juss. 



" Calyx tubular. Corolla regular, of 5 united or AisAinci petals. 

 Stamens hypogynous or inserted upon the corolla. Ovary single, 

 1-celled, with 1 ovule suspended from the apex of a stalk arising 

 from the base of the cell. Styles 6, sometimes united to the mid- 

 dle or to the summit. Stigmas 5. Capsule indehiscent, or open- 

 ing irregularly, 1 -seeded. Embryo straight, in the axis of farina- 

 ceous albumen. — Herbaceous or someiohat shrubby plants. 

 Flowers often capitate or spiked." — Br. Fl. 



I. Statice, Linn. Sea Lavender. 



" Calyx funnel-shaped, plaited, dry and membranaceous. Pe- 

 tals united at the base, bearing the stamens. Styles distinct, gla- 

 brous : stigmas filiform, glandular. {Flowers in unilateral spikes 

 on a panicled scape)." — Br. Fl. 



1. S. Limonium, L. Sea Lavender. " Leaves elliptic -lanceo- 

 late stalked mucronate single-ribbed, scape with a much-branched 

 spreading corymb at the top, branches ctu'ved outwards," " calyx- 

 segments acute ^\'ith intermediate teeth." — Br. Fl. p. 336. E. B. 

 t. 102. 



/3. rariflora. Flowers distant on the branches. Rai/, Syn. ed. 3tia, p. 202. S. 

 rariflora, Dreij. : E. B. Suppl. 2917. 



Tn muddy salt-marshes, and along the shores of tide-rivers and creelts; fre- 

 quent. Fl. July — September. 1(.. 



E. Med. — Shores of the Yar and Wootton rivers. Plentiful along the Medina 

 above Cowes. Brading harbour, in abundance, Mr. Snooke. 



W. Med. — Newlown marshes, in the greatest profusion. Yarmouth, Mr. 

 Snooke. On the rocis at Scratchell's bay, near the Needles, Mr. E. Lees in New 

 Bot. Guide Suppl. May not this station belong to S. spatbulata, as S. Limo- 

 nium does not usually grow upon rocks or cliffs, which the former invariably does ? 



;8. In muddy places about Wootton creek, intermixed with the ordinary S. 



