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S T A T I C E reticulata.
Matted Sea Lavender.
P JE N T A N D R I A Pentagynia.
G e n . C h a r . Cal. o f on e leafj entire, p la ited, filmy.-
Petals five . Seed fin g le .
S p e c . C h a r . Stalk panicled, proftrate; its branches
zigzag, the barren ones bent back. Leaves wedge-
fhaped, a little pointed.
S y n . Statice reticulata. Linn. Sp. PI. 394. Hudf.
FI. A n. 133. With. P o t. A rr. 327 .
T h i s fpecies of Statice is hardly to be found in any other
part of Great Britain than on the coaft of Norfolk, where it
covers many acres of muddy fait marfhes with its blue flowers
in July and Augufiy efpecially about Wells, Cley and Holk-
ham. Our fpecimen was gathered below Wifbeach, by the
Rev. Mr. Hemfted.
Root ftrong, woody and perennial, bearing thick tufts of fmall,
narrow, obovate, or wedge-fhaped, leaves, Rightly pointed, and
entire. Stalks proftrate, deftitute of leaves, very much branched,
the branches zigzag, matted and entangled with each other,
with an ovate, fharp, membranous bractea at each divarication.
The bark in our fpecimens is a little crifped and tuberculated,
which we do not obferve in the Linnsean ones. Many of the
branches are barren, and thofe often reflexed, but not always.
Flowers few together in Ample terminal fpikes, eredt, each enveloped
in three or four larger fheathing bradtese. The ribs of
the calyx, and the petals, are of a bright purplilh blue, which
turns white in drying.
There cannot be faid to be a good figure of this plant extant.
Plukenet’s t. 42. ƒ 4. is moft like S. echioidesy and Boc-
cone’s Sic. t. 44. is too imperfedt to be of any fervice.