Statice (statise)

[NL. (Tournefort, 1700), are usually perennials; a Flowering Plant of Statice Limofew are diminutive loosely branched shrubs. They are smooth or covered with scurf nium, var. Carol in i an a. a, the flower with its bracts. or dust. The leaves vary from linear to obovate, and from entire to pinnatifid or di ected; they form a rosette at the root, or are crowded or scattered upon the branches. The short-pedicel led corolla consists of five nearly or quite distinct petals with long claws, and is commonly surrounded by a funnel-shaped calyx which is ten-ribbed below, and scarious, plicate, and colored above, but usually of a different color from the corolla, which is often white with a purple or lavender calyx and purplish-brown ped i cel. They are known in general as sea - lavender. The common European S. Limonium is also sometimes called marsh- beet from its purplish root; it is the red behen of the old apothecaries. Its American variety, Carol in i an a, the marsh-rosemary of the coast from Newfoundland to Texas, is also known as canker - root, from the use as an astringent of its large bitter fleshy root, which also contains tannic acid (whence its name ink - root ). The very large roots of S. latifolia are used for tanning in Ru ia and Spain, and those of S. mucronata as a nervine in Morocco under the name of safrifa. Other species also form valued remedies, as S. Bras i liens is, the guaycura of Brazil and southward. Many species are cultivated for their beauty, as S. lati folia, and S. arbores cens, a shrub from the Canaries. In Afghanistan, where several species grow in desert regions, they form a source of fuel.