268 A BOTANICAL RAMBLE. 



maritimum,) a plant of the order Compositce, found on rocky coasts as at 

 Dover. — 



"Half way down 

 Hangs one that gathers Samphire — 

 Dreadful trade!" 



The Salicornia has a very salt taste, and from the ashes a fossil alkali is 

 obtained, useful in making soap and glass; in fact the whole of this genus 

 yields a vast quantity of soda. }Iere also is that ornament of the Downs, 

 Eaphorhia officinalis, (Eyebright;) you must admire the small but elegant 

 blossom streaked with purple, and just a dash of yellow. Withering says it 

 was formerly in repute as a remedy for impaired vision; but he adds it will 

 not grow unless surrounded by plants taller than itself, from which I must 

 dissent, as I have found it on the Downs with nothing near it but the short 

 grass, not half its height. The Whitlow-grass, {Draba verna,) that enlivened 

 the dreary beach in the month of March with its myriad tiny white blossoms 

 is gone. Gerastium vulgatum and tetrandrum, all early plants, may still be 

 found in blossom both here and on the road-side; they belong to the order 

 Caryophyllaceoe, the same as the pinks, thrift, etc., and have but insignificant 

 white flowers, and would scarcely be noticed at this time of the year among 

 their brilliant neighbours. To the same order belong Silene maritima, stretching 

 over the shingle, and Silene inflata, (Bladder Campion,) that grows on the banks 

 and on the hedges everywhere; Lychnis vespertina, (White Robin,) growing 

 in the same situations; Spergula arvensis, a purple plant with white flowers; 

 Stellar ia Holostea, with its elegant grassy leaves and large wliite star-like 

 blossoms, growing among the grass on the cliff" with its relations, Stellaria 

 Graminea, (Lesser Stitchwort,) and S. media, (Common Chickweed,) which 

 makes itself at home in every situation. 



Let us now return to those rugged cliff's, from ten to twenty feet in height, 

 in some places almost perpendicular, where the red clayey soil shows itself in 

 agreeable contrast to the long grass that covers the more sloping parts. Here 

 and there the ground is broken by a winding footpath, leading up from the 

 beach to the highroad, that runs along its top. Two or three solitary houses 

 stand at the bottom, and in their immediate neighbourhood are a few mud 

 huts, built by the navvies employed in making the ship canal from Shoreham. 

 On our left is the salt marsh, soon to be converted into docks with quays 

 and warehouses; beyond it the canal and Shoreham harbour; behind us is the 

 roar of the sea, itself concealed from our sight by the high bank of shingle. 

 Xo doubt at one period the sea or a river washed the foot of those cliffs 

 with their rugged and precipitous sides, and at a still more distant one those 

 same cliffls extended much further to the south, keeping back the sea to a 

 greater distance, probably than it is even now; for here was once the mouth 

 of the Adur, and here the famous Partus Adurni of the Romans. Yes! this 

 silent and unfrequented spot was once a busy scene, where commerce poured 

 her wealth into the laps of hundreds, while thousands pined in misery. Here 



