Thrift

Thrift (Armeria), a genus of plants of the natural order Plumbagineæ, having the flowers collected into a rounded head, a funnel-shaped, dry, and membranous calyx, five petals united at the base, and narrow, often grass-like, leaves. Two species are included in the British flora, but one of them (A. plantaginea) is only found wild in Jersey. The other (A. vulgaris) grows in turf-like tufts, with linear leaves, scapes a few inches high, and beautiful rose-coloured, purple, or white flowers, an ornament of the sea-coasts of Britain and of Europe generally, and also frequently found on high mountains. Under the names of thrift or sea-pink it is often planted in gardens as an edging, for which it is very suitable, being of a fresh green all the year, and exhibiting its fine flowers in profusion in July and August; but it requires to be renewed every two or three years, the smallest rootless sets growing, however, with great readiness in the moist weather of spring. The flowers are an active diuretic.