372 THE GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. —— [Salicornia, 
perianth, divided into 2 or 3 stigmas. Nut enclosed in the unchanged 
succulent perianth. Seed ovoid, without albumen. Radicle bent back 
over the ee 
A genus of very few species, ranging over the salt-marshes of all parts 
of the world. 
1. S. herbacea, Linn. (fig. 839). Marsh Samphire, Glasswort.—In its 
simplest form this is a glabrous, bright green, succulent, erect annual, 
scarcely 6 inches high, with few erect branches, each one terminated 
by a spike, 4 to 1 inch long. When luxuriant, after the first flowering, 
branches shoot out from every joint or node as well as from the spike 
itself, the lower ones become hard, and often procumbent, rooting at 
the nodes, and the whole plant will extend to a foot or more; and in 
favourable situations a few plants will outlive the winter, so as to have 
the appearance of undershrubs, but probably do not last beyond the 
second year. | 
[A very variable plant. The British varieties, procwmbens, ramosissima, 
and pusilla, indicate these characters. A very different form usually 
recognised as a species, is S. radicans, Sm., with perennial woody creeping 
stems; it is confined to western Europe, and in Britain to the coasts 
from York to Devon. ] 
———————— 
II. SUAEDA. SUAIDA. 
Herbs or undershrubs, with rather small, linear, semi-cylindrical, succu- 
lent leaves. Flowers and fruit of Chenopodium, except that the embryo 
of the seed is coiled into a flat spiral, with little or no albumen. 
A genus of very few species, ranging over the seacoasts of most parts 
of the globe, readily distinguished amongst British Chenopodiacee by the 
foliage as well as by the seed. 
Stem shrubby at the base. Styles3 . : 2 : : , . Ll. S. fruticosa. 
Stem annual, much branched, or diffuse. Styles2 . s ; . 2 S. maritima. 
1. S. fruticosa, Forsk. (fig. 840). Shrubby S.—A branching perennial, 
more or less shrubby at the base, sometimes erect, and 1 to 2 feet high, 
sometimes low and spreading. Leaves numerous, linear but thick, 
nearly cylindrical and succulent, 3 to 5 or rarely 6 lines long, of a pale 
ereen. Flowers small, and solitary or 2 or 3 together, closely sessile in 
the axils of the leaves. Styles 3, rather longer than the perianth. 
In maritime sands, and salt marshes, all round the Mediterranean, in 
central Asia, and up the western coasts of Europe to Holland, occurring 
also here and there in America. In Britain, very local, and confined to 
the eastern and southern coasts of England. Fl. autwmn. 
2. S. maritima, Dumort. (fig. 841). Herbaceous S.—A low, much 
branched annual, or sometimes biennial, of a green or reddish colour, 
seldom a foot high, and often not above 2 or 3 inches. Leaves linear 
and succulent as in S. fruticosa, but usually longer and sometimes more 
pointed ; the lower ones often an inch long, the upper ones 8 to 6 lines. 
Flowers ‘small, green, and sessile, solitary or 2 or 3 together in the axils 
of the leaves. Styles usually 2 only. 
In salt-marshes and maritime sands, in Europe and central Asia, 
extending northward to the shores of Scandinavia and the acs: 
Common all round the British Isles. Fl. summer and autumn. 
