SALICORNIA 
1 88 
Section I. PSEUDO-ARTHROCNEMUM 
Pseudo-Arthrocnemum Moss and Salisbury in Camb. Brit. FI. ii, 187; Perennes Duval-Jouve in Bull. 
Soc. Bot. France xv, 170 (1868); Moss in Journ. Bot. xlix, 178 (1911). 
For characters, see p. 187. Only British species: — S. per ennis. 
I. SALICORNIA PERENNIS. Perennial Glasswort. Plates 195, 196 
Kali geniculatum majus sive alia nova species kali per ennis Ray Hist. Plant, ii, 1857 (1688); K. geniculatum 
perenne fruticosus procumbens Ray Syn. ed. 2, 67 (1696); ibid. ed. 3, 136 (1724). 
Salicornia perennis Miller Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 2 (1768)!; Moss in Journ. Bot. xlix, 179 (1911) 
including S. lignosa-, S. fruticosa Withering Bot. Arr. ed. 2, 3 (1787); Smith FI. Brit. 3 (1800); non L. ; S'. 
radicans Smith Eng. Bot. no. 1691 (1807) inch S. fruticosa no. 2467; Syme Eng. Bot. viii, 7 (1868); Rouy FI. 
France xii, 60 (1910); S. fruticosa auct. angl., olim. 
Dwarf shrub, often a social or subsocial plant growing in matted tussocks up to about a 
metre or rather more in diameter. Stem 
ascending or decumbent. Segments usually 
dark green especially when growing in mud, 
usually fading to a brown or rarely (particularly 
when growing in sand or shingle) to a red 
colour, basal ones keeled, very concave at the 
top. Terminal spikes cylindrical, short, blunt, 
with about 8 flowering segments, about 3 — 5 mm. 
long and 3 — 4 broad. Cymes 3-flowered. 
Elowers nearly equal in size, the central one 
slightly larger than the lateral ones ; August 
and September. Seeds nearly globular, covered 
with curved hairs which are rather stouter but 
not coiled as in SaLicorniella ; October. 
The seeds of this species are often in this country 
killed by early frosts, which do not injure the seeds of the 
herbaceous species. Doubtless this susceptibility is one of 
the chief reasons why S. perennis has a more southerly 
distribution than S. herbacea. 
Bentham ( Handb . Brit. FI. 436 (1858) and 385 (1866)) 
reduced all the British forms of Salicornia , including 
even S. perennis , to a single species, and did not even 
recognise any variety. Bentham named this group “ Sali- 
cornia herbacea Linn.”, although Linnaeus himself never 
included any perennial form in his S. herbacea. There can 
be no doubt that Bentham had not studied the British 
glassworts ; and his attempt therefore to include S. pere?mis 
in his “ S. herbacea Linn.” is remarkable. Bentham ( loc . 
cit.) states that “when luxuriant, after the first flowering, 
branches [of ‘ S. herbacea Linn.’] shoot out from every joint or node as well as from the spike itself; the lower ones 
become hard, and often procumbent, and rooting at the nodes, and the whole plant will extend to a foot or more; 
and in favourable seasons a few plants will outlive the winter, so as to have the appearance of under-shrubs, but probably 
do not last beyond the second year.” It would be difficult to find a statement more crowded with errors than this, or 
one more bold in an attempt to fob unskilful conjectures as established truths. It is well known that Bentham went 
to great lengths to support his opinions of the ultra-synthetic nature of species ; but the above extract may, we hope, 
be taken as the limit to which he was prepared to go in this regard. 
S. fruticosa has several times been recorded as British. The early botanists, such as Withering (loc. cit.), doubtless 
usually meant .S', perennis by their records of S. fruticosa, the latter species being unknown to them. The .S', fruticosa 
of Smith (Eng. Bot. no. 2467) appears to have been merely a state of S. perennis. Mr A. G. More (see fourn. Bot. 
ix, 170 (1871)) thought that S. perennis var. lignosa might be S. fruticosa-, but in this he was certainly mistaken. 
5 . fruticosa is a not uncommon species in the Mediterranean region, and certainly reaches as far north as the estuary 
of the river Loire. Corbiere (Nouv. FI. de Normandie 495 (1893)) and Rouy (FI. France xii, 60 (1910)) record S. fruticosa 
for northern France where we ourselves have only been able to find A. perennis. S. fruticosa may easily be separated 
from S. perennis by its erect stem, and by its ripe seeds which are covered with small conical protuberances. The 
latter are shorter than the hairs of the seeds of S. perennis , and only very slightly curved. 
(a) S. perennis var. radicans Moss and Salisbury in Camb. Brit. FI. ii, 188; S. perennis Miller loc. cit.-, 
Moss loc. cit. ; S', radicans Smith loc. cit. including S. fruticosa loc. cit. ; Syme loc. cit. ; in sensu stricto ; 
