bracts resembling the leaves. Their fruit, 

 called an utricle, lias a loose thin shell, 

 and contains a horizontal single-coated 

 seed. 



5. Kali, the Prickly Saltwort, is a com- 

 mon seashore plant in most European and 

 many other countries. It is a brittle suc- 

 culent annual of a pale bluish green hue, 

 with somewhat angular furrowed and 

 striped bristly stems, very much branched, 

 and spreading in all directions so as to 

 form a bush from a foot to a foot and a 

 I half high ; and has numerous awl-shaped 

 nearly cylindrical spiny-pointed leaves, 

 with broadened bases furnished with little 

 prickles. S. Soda, a South European and 

 North African species, is a succulent 

 annual from one to two feet high, but not 

 brittle like the last ; and has smooth shin- 

 ing steins and somewhat flexuose branch- 

 es, with soft nearly cylindrical short- 

 pointed leaves of a bluish-green colour. 



An impure carbonate of soda obtained 

 from the ashes of these and several allied 

 and other plants, known under the Spanish 

 name barilla, was formerly an article of 

 considerable commercial importance; and 

 large quantities of it were annually im- 

 ported into the United Kingdom from the 

 Canary Islands, Spain, and other parts of ; 



I the South of Europe, and employed in 

 soap and glass-making; but since the in- 

 I troducticn of soda manufactured from 

 common salt as a commercial article, the 

 imports have greatly decreased, though 

 about a thousand tons of barilla and other 

 alkalies are still annually imported, mostly 

 from the Canary Islands and the Two 

 Sicilies. For the preparation of barilla 

 these plants are dried in heaps like hay, 

 and afterwards burnt upon a rude grating 

 constructed over a large hole, into which 

 the semifluid alkaline matter flows, and is 

 there left to cool and solidify. Kali is the 

 Arabic name for the ashes of these soda- 

 plants, and the term alkali, applied by 

 chemists to soda, potassa, and similar sub- 

 stances, is derived either from kali, with 

 the Arabic article al prefixed, or from acor- 



j ruption of sal (salt) and kali. [A. S.] 



SALSUGIXOSE. Growing in places in- 

 undated with saltwater. 



SALT-BUSH. The Australian Atriplex 

 nwmmularia. 



SALTIA. A genus of Amaranthaeem 

 from Arabia, consisting of a branched 

 undershruh, with alternate leaves, and ax- 

 illary and terminal spikes of bracteated 

 flowers in threes— the central one perfect, 

 J | the lateral sterile, and at length growing 

 i out into straight awns clothed with 

 I feathery wool. The perfect flowers have 

 I five hairy sepals, five stamens united at 

 the base into a cup, witli two-celled an- 

 I thers and no staminodes; and the utricle 

 is oblong with a vertical seed. [J. T. S.] 

 SALT-TREE. Halimodendron argenteum. 

 SALTWORT. Salicornia annua ; also 

 Salsola. — , BLACK. Glaux maritima. 

 SALVADORACEiE. A small order of 



monopetalous dicotyledons allied to Olea- 

 cea and Jasminacece. Like the former 

 they are small trees or shrubs, with oppo- 

 site entire leaves, and small paniculate 

 flowers with a minute four-cleft calyx, and 

 a four-cleft corolla ; but there are four 

 stamens, the ovary is one-celled with a 

 single erect ovule and a sessile simple 

 stigma, and the seed, as in Jasminacece, is 

 erect without albumen. Only two genera, 

 Salvadora and Monetia, have as yet been 

 positively referred to the order. 



SALVADORA. An unusual amount of 

 interest is attached to this genus, on ac- 

 count of one of the species belonging to 

 it being supposed to be the Mustard-tree 

 of Scripture. It is the typical species of 

 Salvador acece, and was atone time the only 

 genus referred to that order. The five de- 

 scribed species are shrubs or small trees, 

 and have a geographical range extending 

 from Central Africa, Abyssinia, and 

 Egypt through South-western Asia to 

 India and Ceylon. They have stems with 

 slightly swollen joints, opposite entire 

 leathery leaves with scarcely any visible 

 veins, and loose branching panicles of 

 small flowers, which have a very minute 

 four-leaved calyx, a thin four-parted co- 

 rolla, with four stamens inserted between 

 the lobes and connecting them together, 

 and a one-celled ovary bearing an undi- 

 vided stalkless stigma. Their little berry- 

 like fruits contain solitary erect seeds. 



The identification of the plants men- 

 tioned in the Bible is a task of great diffi- 

 culty, and in almost all instances the re- 

 sult of the most learned investigations, 

 whether by Biblical commentators or 

 by botanists, is unsatisfactory and open 

 to doubt. In our English version of the 

 Bible the names of plants have been made 

 to agree with those now in use, and the 

 obvious inference among the unlearned is 

 that the plants are the same. The re- 

 searches of botanists, however, have shown 

 that the tares, the aloes, the hyssop, and 

 other Scriptural plants differ widely from 

 those so called at the present clay; and 

 some writers have therefore thought it 

 probable that the same is the case with 

 the Mustard spoken of in the Gospels, the 

 seed of which St. Matthew says ' is the 

 least of all seeds ; but when it is grown it is 

 the greatest among herbs, and becometh 

 a tree, so that the birds of the air come 

 and lodge in the branches thereof.' (xiii.32.) 

 It is obvious that this description does not 

 agree with the common mustard (Sinapis) 

 as seen in this country, and consequently 

 the assertion that the Scriptural plant be- 

 longed to a totally different genus has been 

 readily believed. During their travels in 

 the Holy Land, Captains Irbyand Mangles 

 met with a small tree (ascertained by Pro- 

 fessor Don to be a Salvadora)) with a small 

 pungent mustard-like fruit, and they 

 thought it might probably be the tree re- 

 ferred to by Christ. This supposition was 

 afterwards strengthened by Dr. Royle, 

 who found that the tree in question bore 

 the same Arabic name (Khardal) as the 



