SALT MARSHES 



their patches of salt marsh, each reached by 

 an ancient right of way. Most of the marsh 

 hay is fit only for bedding, but when cut at 

 the proper season and carefully harvested it 

 makes valuable fodder for cattle. 



Besides the fox, sea-spear, and spike 

 grasses of the broad marshes, one comes on 

 patches of a salt marsh sedge, which, with its 

 sturdy brown bunches of fruit, grows in pro- 

 tected regions, while the seaside plantain with 

 its narrow grass-like leaves is common every- 

 where. Another plant with narrow leaves, 

 and therefore mistaken for a grass and called 

 arrow grass, is common in this zone. 



Perhax^s the most striking plant, when it 

 emerges from its inconspicuous green of sum- 

 mer, and changes in the fall to a modest red 

 and later to a flaming scarlet, is the giasswort 

 or samphire, a plant of universal distribution 

 in salt marshes, both in this country and in 

 Europe and Asia. 



The sea milkwort, a humble saline member 

 of the primrose family, surnamed glaiix from 

 its sea-green color, bears tiny flowers of pink 

 and lavender, and grows prostrate or erect 

 among the grasses. 



Another marine plaiit of the salt marshes 

 195 



