A BOTANICAL RAMBLE. 249 



of ever imitating such a delicate blending of tint with his artificial pigments. 



Yonder mass of quivering white and pink, and those handsomely-carved 

 glaucous leaves stretching over the barren shingle, soon to be adorned with 

 large yellow flowers of delicate texture, and long horn-like pods, are the one^ 

 Silene maritima, (Sea Campion;) the other, Glaucium luteum, (Yellow Horn- 

 popp3',) which together with this elegant little straggling tare, Vicia (Ervum) 

 hirsutum, form the commencement of vegetation, and bind the pebbles with 

 their entangling roots. 



But here is a grassy plain thickly sprinkled with .Daisies, (BelUs perennis,') 

 all turning to the sun their golden eyes and radiant crowns of white; beyond 

 is a gentle undulation clothed with a mass of delicate pink, that seems rather 

 to hang in the air than to rost on earth, and of such gossamer texture that 

 you tremble lest the rising breeze disperse it like a mist; — it is the Thrift 

 or Sea Pink, {^Anneria maritima,) growing in the most luxuriant profusion; 

 we might take away a cart-load without its being missed. It makes a pretty 

 edging to a flower border. 



The grass we walk upon is quickly interspersed with the slender cream- 

 coloured flowers of the Subterranean Trefoil, (TrifoUum suhterraneum,) which 

 has a most curious habit of burying its fruit; for as the legume approaches 

 maturity, it becomes deflexed, and the peduncles lengthen; from the top of 

 these arise many thick fibres, with five palmated teeth at their extremity, 

 that soon curve themselves over the fruit, and serve to bury it in the soil. 

 A little later in the season we should see the Hare's-foot Trefoil, {TrifoUum 

 arveme,) with its head of flowers clothed, with soft hairs, not unlike the foot 

 of the animal from which it takes its name; about the same time another 

 curious Trefoil will be in flower — TrifoUum frayiferum, whose heads of fruit 

 resemble pale strawberries, or the whilk's spawn, so often seen blown about 

 on the sea-coast, like hardened balls of froth, called soap balls, or wash balls 

 by the sailors. Here also is Trigondla ornithopodioides, (Bird's-foot Fenugreek,) 

 a rare plant, with bunches of pods like birds' feet, and on the bank are 

 TrifoUum minus, or flUforme, that diminutive Yellow Clover, so common by 

 the roadside, and TrifoUum repeiis, (White or Dutch Clover,) the Shamrock 

 of the Irish; though the original Shamrock, or Seararog, according to Hooker, 

 was the Wood Sorrel, (OxaUs accfosella.) 



The other plants to be found here of the same natural order Leguminosoe, 

 are AnthyUis vulneraria, Ononis arvensis, Medicago sativa, Vicia saliva, Tri- 

 foUum pretense, (Purple Clover,) Vicia sepium, Vicia Bithynica, a rare plant, 

 with only one purple and white flower on a peduncle, blooming in July, and 

 two pairs of lanceolate leaflets, Medicago maculata, resembling a Clover with 

 a head of a few small yellow flowers, and a trefoil leaf, having a black spot 

 on each lobe; and glorious masses of the bright golden Bird's-foot Trefoil, or 

 Old Man's shoes and stockings, (^Lotus corniculatus,) luxuriating everywhere 

 among the barren pebbles, where you would think there was neither earth 

 nor moisture; embellishing the meagre turf on which we tread, and hanging 



VOL. III. 2 K 



