334 WILD FLOWERS OP 



a few years ago, was unfortunately upset in his boat, 

 and perished with all on board. 



And now, the dangers of the sea escaped, we may 

 contemplate at leisure the beauties that Flora scatters 

 around, even on the extremest verge of her dominion. 

 How inviting the gloominess of that cave, now left 

 dry by the surges : among whose cool and hallowed 

 recesses the Nereids might have sported, or Proteus 

 slumbered unmolested ! It is adorned with the deep 

 green fronds and polished purple stalks of the Sea 

 Fern (Asplenium marinuni), whose chestnut-coloured 

 sori nearly cover the alternate leaflets ; the Scaly 

 Hart's-tongue (Grammitis Ceterack) dots the recesses 

 of the rock with its curious foliage : all scales on one 

 side, and light glaucous green on the other; and 

 amidst the rills that weep in the dampest parts of the 

 cavern, the light and truly elegant Maiden-hair {Adi- 

 antum Capillus Veneris) waves its slender and elegant 

 tresses. The precipice above, which boldly lifts its 

 impending brow above the retiring waves, is beaute- 

 ously overspread with a thousand tufts of the Thrift 

 or Sea Pink {Statice Armeria), whose aggregate rosy 

 flowers, varying in tint to purple and almost white, 

 descend among the declivities of the rocks to the very 

 billows; there, too, in dense masses the white flowers of 

 the Sea Campion (Silene maritima), nod ; the crimson 

 Geranium sanguineum here and there gladdens the 

 solitary spot; the Sea Sandwort (Arenaria marina), 

 trails its long succulent stems with stars of pale 

 purple ; and tracks of red and sparkling silver, mark 

 the resting place of the "White English Stone-crop 

 {Sedwm Anglicum). Here, also, often plentiful on the 

 very margin of the Pembrokeshire cliffs, the pretty 



