CLXXXVII. — THE SEA HOLLY. 
Eryngium maritimum Linne. 
T HE Tribe Sanicule# have either simple umbels or irregularly compound ones, 
and their fruits are almost cylindrical or slightly compressed dorsally, in a 
direction, that is, at right angles to the commissure, so that that lateral plane of 
junction between the carpels is broad. Their leaves are usually simple and 
palmatifid. We have two British genera belonging to this Tribe, besides Astrantia , 
one species of which, Astrantia major Linn6, well known in gardens for its star-like 
membranous involucres, is found in an apparently naturalised condition in woods 
near Ludlow and Malvern. The two unquestionably indigenous genera are the 
rigid thistle-like Eryngium and the more slender Canicula. 
In spite of the popular names Sea Holly and its variants Sea Holme and Sea 
Hulver , the species of Eryngium are so thistle-like that we do not wonder at the 
names Cardon d'banque , literally “ Sea-shore Thistle,” bestowed upon E. maritimum 
Linn£ in Guernsey, and W atling-street Thistle applied to the rarer E. campestre Linne 
in Northamptonshire. 
The beautiful glaucous hue of E. maritimum Linn6, with the bluer veins of its 
leaves and the still deeper blue of the crowded heads of blossom, in delicate 
gradations of tone, contrasting with the banks of loose yellow sand amidst which 
it grows, have given the plant a fatal attraction in the eyes of every appreciative lover 
of the beautiful ; so that the species is, perhaps, in greater danger of extermination 
nowadays for the decking of artists’ studios than it was when its underground 
stems were rooted up for the manufacture of candy. How deeply the plant sends 
down the fleshy stolons given off" by its creeping rhizome may be gauged from an 
old prescription for the making of “ candied eryngo roots,” which begins by 
directing that “ the roots must be dug up from a depth of at least six feet.” This 
was only the troublesome beginning of an equally laborious preparation, and it seems 
a method very likely to lead to extermination, so that we are not surprised to hear 
that the industry, which seems, in this country, to have been mainly confined to the 
neighbourhood of Colchester, died out chiefly from the increasing scarcity of the raw 
material. The medicinal repute of the plant seems to be ancient, since the name 
Eryngium , of which the Greek equivalent is employed by Dioscorides, refers to its 
value in flatulence and as an antispasmodic. The candied root-stocks, elaborately 
flavoured and perfumed, as is fully described in Gerard’s “ Herball,” were not only 
esteemed as “ an excellent sweetmeat,” but as a remedy for colds and coughs, and 
they were, no doubt, a very good and harmless demulcent. We read of presents 
being made of this candy from the borough of Colchester to the Bishop of London, 
to Queen Charlotte, and to George III. 
The aerial stems are often prostrate, but may rise a foot or two from the ground, 
forking trichotomously : the radical leaves are stalked and suborbicular in outline, 
