PARSLEYS 181 
for the main stem passes right through them, or, if you 
would put it another way, they grow completely round 
the stem. Moreover, the stem 
does not choose the centre, but 
a point near the large end. As 
for the flowers, they are put in 
the shade by large greenish- 
yellow bracts, which envelop each 
section of the umbel like a cup, 
and make the tiny yellow flowers 
in the centre look like so many 
stamens. 
The Samphire is of interest, for 
where it lines the cliffs one can 
know at once the high - water 
mark of the sea. Down to that Hine 
point, or near it, it will creep, but 
not below. It has an ordinary yellow umbel, but its leaves 
are of an unusual kind for its family, thick, fleshy, and un- 
broken at their edge. Now the problem the plant has to 
face is just the same as that which the Sea Holly solved 
by its long, thick roots, namely, how to keep sufficient 
moisture in the face of the burning sun which falls full 
upon it, unshaded by other friendly vegetation. The Sea 
Holly had an easy task in driving roots through the sand, 
but it would be a very different matter to send them into 
a solid cliff-face. The Samphire, therefore, adopts per- 
force the cellarage system in its leaves, for you will see 
at once that the thicker they are the more slowly will 
the water get away, just as a rolled-up towel would keep 
moist for hours after one that had been spread out in the 
sun was perfectly dry. 
There we must leave the Umbellifere, and before we 
