Plumbagineæ

Plumbagineæ, or PLUMBAGINACEÆ, a natural order of exogenous plants, herbaceous or half-shrubby, to which belong about 160 known species, chiefly found on the seashores and in the salt marshes of temperate regions. Some are found also in elevated regions in all zones. Many have flowers of great beauty, and are therefore favourites in gardens. Some are occasionally used in medicine as tonics and astringents; others, being exceedingly acrid, as vesicants, particularly species of Plumbago. Thrift, or Sea-pink (q.v.), is the most familiar British example of the order. Statice europiæ, a native of the United States, and there known by the name 'Marsh Rosemary,' is extremely bitter and astringent, and is used in domestic medicine for ulcerations of the mouth. Its most abundant principle is tannic acid, of which it contains 12.4 per cent. Along with this it gives a peculiar gum and extractive volatile oil, resin, caoutchouc, colouring matter, lignin, and various salts. Sea-lavender (Statice Limonium)—an inhabitant of the coasts of England, generally, but rather rarely so, of the Scottish coasts, common, however, on the western coasts of Europe, the Mediterranean, and western Asia, appearing also on the seashore of South America and of the Carolinas—has the same qualities as the preceding.