BOTANY OF THE BURROWS, 285 



ragwort. The large purple musk-thistle was attracting 

 iu considerable numbers the pretty burnet hawkmoths, 

 which were flying about and sucking the flowers; 

 and the herbage generally was crowded with two little 

 banded snails, proper to the sea-shore, the cone-snail 

 CBulinms acutus) ^ and the navel-snail {Helix vir- 

 gataj. The cliff" in one place, rather less precipitous 

 than usual, was entirely faced with honeysuckle from 

 the top to the bottom. 



As I returned, I spent an hour in examining the 

 botany of the Burrows ; though it would require days 

 to go over the whole groundj even cursorily. The 

 privet grows on the sand-hills in large thickets of 

 beautiful glossy green foliage, thick and dense; the 

 stems lean away from the sea, and the surface of the 

 thickets is as smoothly rounded by the winds as if 

 cut by the shears of a gardener. Near the sea was 

 the small bugloss (Lycopsis arvensisj, with blossoms 

 like those of a forget-me-not growing on a rough 

 sprawliug prickly herb. I found the rare musky 

 stork's bill, a plant with little pretension to beauty, 

 nor does its rank odour please me, though it is said 

 by Sir William Hooker to be cultivated in gardens 

 for its scent. The viper's bugloss was again numer- 

 ous, and the contents of its nectariums were evidently 

 attractive to the bees of diff'erent species, which were 

 thronging around the spikes, half-burying themselves 

 in the blossoms, with a shrill deprecatory hum. Two 

 species of spurge, Euphorhia j)eplus, and the much 

 finer and more uncommon E. Fortlandica, occurred. 

 That singular plant, the prickly saltwort, was found 

 near the sea, and faither inland the fuller's teaseh 



