Salicornia
(from sal, salt, and cornu, a horn; alluding to the economical products and the horn-like branches of the plants). Glasswort; Marsh Samphire. ORD. Chenopodiaceae. A small genus (about eight species) of greenhouse or hardy, annual or perennial, leafless, seashore herbs, broadly dispersed. Flowers in terminal, short or elongated, cylindrical spikes. S. herbacea (Crab Grass) and S. radicans represent the genus in Britain. "The various species of this genus, as well as others belonging to the same family, and growing abundantly on the coasts in the South of Europe and North of Africa, yield a vast quantity of soda, much employed in making both soap and glass, whence comes the English name Glasswort" (Hooker and Arnott). The ashes of these and allied plants were formerly imported under the name of Barilla; but since the introduction of Le Blanc's process for obtaining soda from common salt, Barilla has not been much used. The species have no horticultural value.