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B E T A maritima.
Sea Beet.
/ / 3
P E N T A N D R I A Digynia.
Gen. Char. Calyx 5-leaved. Cor. none. Seed kidney-
fliaped, within the fubftance of the bafe of the
calyx.
Spec. Char. Stems procumbent. Flowers in pairs.
Calyx entire.
Syn. Beta maritima. Linn. Sp. PI. 3 2 2 . HudJ. FI.
An. 10S. With.Bot. Arr. 2 5 7 .
B. fylveftris maritima. Rail Syn. 1 5 7 ..
A N A T I V E of the fea fliore in feveral parts of England,
more efpecially in muddy places. Dr. Smith found it by the
river fide juft below Lynn, with Atriplex pedunculata and other
rarities. The fpecimen here delineated was gathered near Scarborough
by Mr. William Travis, and we are the more obliged to
this gentleman for his communication, as there is no figure of
B. maritima extant.
Root, according to Ray, perennial, by which he fays it differs
from the garden Beets; its fubftance thick and flelhy. Stems
feveral, proftrate, a circumftance which the form of our page
would not allow of being duly expreffed in the plate. Leaves
fucculent, the edge waved but entire, decurrent into the foot-
ftalk ; the radical ones numerous and larger; thofe on the ftem
all turned upwards from the ground, and bearing in their axilla
clufters of fmall leaves and flowers. The ftem terminates in a
more or lefs compound leafy fpike, bearing the flowers either
in pairs or folitary, never many together, by which circumftance,
added to its proftrate ftem and confequently vertical
ftem-leaves, and the keel of the calyx-leaves being entire, not
toothed as in B. vulgaris, this fpecies is with certainty diftin-
guifhed, according to Linnaeus, who cultivated it in his garden,
and remarks that it flowered the firft year. He thought it an
annual. With us it appears to be perennial, flowering in
Auguft and September. The ftigmas are very frequently three
in number.