FLOWERING PLANTS OF TEE SEA-SIDE 417 



One species of Pansy (Viola Curtisii) is occasionally to be 

 met with on sandy shores, and may be at once recognised as one 

 of the Violacece by its irregular spurred corolla, its five persistent 

 sepals, and the three-parted, one-celled ovary. The flowers are 

 variable in colour and size, the prevailing tints being blue and 

 yellow, and the diameter of the corolla occasionally reaching to one 

 inch. It has a creeping woody rootstock, and a rough angular 

 stem ; and the petals are generally but little longer than the 



The Shrubby Mignonette (Reseda suffrut^culo8a), of the order 

 Resedacece, is a common sea-side plant that grows to a height of 

 one or two feet on sandy shores, bearing spikes of white flowers in 



FIG. 304. THE 

 SHUUBBY MIGNONETTE 



FIG. 303. THE SEA PEARL WORT 



July and August. The order is characterised by alternate exstipu- 

 late leaves, persistent calyx with four or five sepals, corolla of 

 from four to seven petals, many stamens, and a three-lobed, one- 

 celled ovary. The sea-side species is very much like the wild 

 mignonette so common in chalky districts, but differs in having all 

 its leaves pinnate, waved, and glaucous, with linear segments ; and 

 in having five equal sepals and petals. In a variety of the species, 

 however, the sepals and petals are six in number. 



The Crucifers are fairly well represented by coast plants, there 

 being several maritime species of the order. The Cruciferce are 

 named from the nature of the corolla, the limbs of the four petals 



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