Saltwort
Name. Called also Kali, Glasswort, Sea Grass, and Marsh Samphire. Description. This Saltwort, Glasswort, or Kali grow usually with but one upright, round, thick, and almost transparent stalk, a foot high or more; thick set, and full of joints or knots, without any leaves; the joints shooting forth one out of another, with shorts pods at the heads of them, and such like smaller branches on each side which are divided into other smaller one; it is thought to bear neither flower nor seed; the root is small, long, and thready. Some other kinds there are differing somewhat in the form of the joints, and one kind wholly reddish, and differing from the other in nothing else. There are four kinds of Saltwort, or Glasswort, described by Parkinson, viz. 1. Kali Majus Cochleatum, Great Glasswort. 2. Kali Minus Album, Small Glasswort. 3. Kali AEgyptiacum, Glasswort of Egypt. And, 4. Kali Geniculatum, five Salicornia, jointed Glasswort.
Place. The first and third are absolutely strangers in our countries, but grow in Syria, Egypt, Italy and Spain: the second grows, not only in those countries but in colder climates, upon many places of our own coasts, especially of the west country. The last generally grows in all countries, in many places of our sea-coast where the salt water overflows. Time. They all flourish in the summer, and those that perish give their seed in August, or later; the last a bidesall the winter. Government and virtues. All sorts of saltwort, or glasswort, are under the dominion of Mars, and are of a cleansing quality, without any great or manifest heat; the powder of any of them, or the juice which is much better, taken in drink, purges downwards phlegmatic waterish, melancholy, and adust hamours, and is therefore very effectual for the dropsy, to provoke urine, and expel the dead child. It opens stoppings of the liver and spleen, and wastes the hardness thereof; but it must be used with discretion, as a great quantity is hurtful and dangerous.
The ashes are very sharp and biting, like a caustic, and the lye that is made thereof is so strong that it will fetch off the skin from the hands, or any part of the body; but may be mixed with other more moderate medicines, to take away scabs, leprosy, and to cleanse the skin. The powder of stones and the ashes hereof being melted is the composition of which glass is made, which, when it glows in the furnace, casts up a fat matter on the top, and, when cold, becomes fat and brittle, and is then called sandiver. It works much to the same effect with the herb and ashes, and is often used in powder to blow into horses eyes, or, being dissolved, to be squirted at them, in order to take away any superfluous film or skin beginning to grow thereon: both of them likewise serve to dry up running sores, scabs, tetters, ringworms, and to help the itch.