obtained by the same procedure from the ashes of non-salty plants. If plant ashes were not washed as just described, they were still usable in glassmaking but the results were not as good.

The appearance of the word glasswort in English is reasonably contemporaneous with a 16th-century resurgence in English glassmaking, which had suffered a long decline after Roman times. This resurgence was led by glassmakers who emigrated to England from Lorraine and from Venice.