336 WILD FLOWERS OF 



(Salsola Kali) lifts its rigid foliage ; the Sea Beet 

 (Beta maritima) trails upon the ground; the pretty 

 pink flowers of Sea Milkwort (Glaux maritima) rise 

 half concealed ; the Purple Sea Eocket (Kakile mari- 

 tima) boldly lifts up its bright lilac corymbose clus- 

 ters ; and beauteous above all, the Sea Holly (Eryngium 

 maritimutii) exhibits bright azure heads of armed 

 flowers, guarded by sharp spinous leaves, whose veins 

 of the brightest blue, present the most elegant aspect 

 imaginable. 



What a maze we get into amongst the sand-hills 

 occasionally immured in deep though dry cauldrons, 

 where only sand and sky are discernible, all waste and 

 dreary as an Arabian desert - - then up the ascent 

 again, sinking knee-deep, till the summit is attained, 

 crowned with rigid rushes, whence a long line of tumb- 

 ling billows break before the eye that long gazes with 

 pensive delight. Several rare plants may be found by 

 the Botanical Explorator in the hollows that occur 

 within the exterior line of sand-hills and the shore 

 itself, such as the Blue Fleabane (Erigeron acre), the 

 purple Sea-Stock (Matthiola sinuata), from whence the 

 beautiful garden varieties have been produced, the 

 white scented spiral-flowered Ladies' Traces (Neottia 

 spiralis), the yellow-flowered Viola Curtisii,* or the 



* This might be properly called the Sea-Violet, being only found on 

 sandy wastes by the sea-shore, and very conspicuous with its yellow- 

 flowers, which seem to give it an affinity to the Mountain Violet (V- tutea)' 

 But HOOKKK and ARNOTT now place it with the common Pansy (V. tri- 

 color). I have observed V. Curtisii on the shore near St. David's, and 

 very abundantly on Braunton Burrows, Devonshire, as well as on the 

 sands at Barmouth, Merionethshire. Doubtless the Heart's-Ease (V. tri- 

 color), varies much in the size and colour of its flowers even in a wild 

 state, and under cultivation assumes a splendid and even regal aspect 

 from yellow to the most intense purple, or beautifully mottled with various 

 colours on its velvet petals. COWLBY has descanted on its splendor but 



