1261 • 
CL CHENOPODIACEE. 
15. SALSOLA, Linn. 
(Salt marsh plant, a diminutive from salmis, salted). 
Flowers hermaphrodite. Perianth of 5 rarely 4 distinct segments when in 
fruit, bearing each on their backs a horizontal wing or protuberance, their points 
closed over the fruit. Stamens 5 or rarely fewer. Styles 2, rarely 3, united at 
the base or above the middle. Fruit enclosed in the perianth. Pericarp mem- 
branous. Seed depressed or nearly globular, testa membranous ; embryo coiled 
in a conical or doubly convex spire, without albumen. — Herbs or undershrubs 
usually hard or fleshy. Leaves narrow-linear or terete, entire. Flowers axillary, 
sessile, solitary within each floral leaf (or subtending bract), with 2 opposite 
bracteoles. 
The genus is widely spread over the temperate regions of the globe in more or less saline 
situations. The only Australian species is the most common one over nearly the whole area of 
the genus. — Bentli. 
1. S. Kali, Linn. : Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 187. A hard procumbent or 
divaricately-branched herb, glabrous or slightly pubescent, usually under 1ft. but 
sometimes extending to 2ft. Leaves alternate or rarely here and there opposite, 
sessile, hard and rigid in the typical form, the lower ones terete or dilated at the 
base, from 4in. to above 2in. long, the upper ones shorter, thicker, and often more 
flattened above, but sometimes all terete, the lower floral ones similar to the 
stem-leaves, the upper ones gradually smaller and sometimes, especially on side 
branches, reduced to thick triangular or lanceolate bracts not exceeding the calyx, 
all as well as the bracteoles ending in rigid pungent points. Flowers sessile and 
solitary in the axil of each bract, but often, owing to the reduction of the flowering 
branch, clustered in the axils of the primary floral leaves. Bracteoles similar to 
the floral leaf or subtending bract, but usually smaller. Segments of the fruiting 
perianth forming at the base a hard or thin campanulate or turbinate tube rarely 
much above 1 line long, surrounded at the top by the 5 horizontal wings which 
are either all equal or 2 narrower than the others, each one sometimes 2 lines long 
and broad, thin and scarious, sometimes very small and thick or in some flowers 
scarcely perceptible, the summit of each perianth-segment within the wing acute 
scarious and closing over the fruit. Pericarp with the upper portion flat circum- 
sciss and deciduous. Embryo spiral, the two cotyledons in separate coils one over 
the other, with the radicle coiled horizontally round the lowest coil or between 
the two. — S’, australis, R. Br. Prod. 411 ; Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 188 ; 
S', macrophylla, R. Br. l.e. ; Moq. l.c. 187 ; Nees in PI. Preiss. i. 637 ; F. v. M. 
Ic. Sal. PI. 90. 
Hab.: Bay of Inlets, Banks and Sulandcr ; Maria Island, Dallachy ; in the iuterior, Mitclicll', 
Cape and Suttor Rivers, Bowman ; Annadilla, W. Barton ; Curriwillinghie, Dalton. 
The species is widely distributed over the temperate regions of the New as well as the Old 
World in more or less saline districts, extending not infrequently to within the tropics I can 
discover nothing to separate the Australian specimens from the European form even as a 
variety. Moquin cites both as growing together in Timor. — Bentli. 
Var. leptophylla. Leaves slender, almost filiform, but pungent when full grown. 
Var. strobilifera. Flowers densely clustered in globular heads with the points of the 
subtending bracts protruding like the scales of a pine-cone. 
Var. brachypteris. Wings or appendages of the perianth reduced to prominent transverse 
ribs, in all or nearly all the flowers. — S. brachypteris, Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 189.— 
Rockingham Bay, Dallachy ; Curtis Island, Thozet. The size of the perianth-wings is as 
variable in European as in Australian specimens, and in some flowers of most specimens and in 
nearly all of other specimens they remain, in both countries, very short or undeveloped as in 
.S', brachypteris ; in this state S'. Kali can always be readily distinguished from S. Soda by the 
pungent leaves. 
16 : BOUSSINGAULTIA, H. B. and K. 
(After -J. B. Boussingault.) 
Flowers hermaphrodite, pedicels articulate with 2 ovate bracteoles at the top, 
the basal bract subulate. Perianth membranous, 5-parted, tube short, segments 
