206 SOME BRITISH PLANT GROUPS 
the common brown Seaweed of our shores. The 
Glasswort has discarded leaves, its stems have become 
thick and succulent, and its flowers, reduced to the 
minutest and simplest dimensions, are almost buried 
in the fleshy branches. Thus armed, it braves the 
salt-desert of the mud-flats, and repeated submersion 
by the tides leaves it uninjured. Under the peculiar 
conditions of its life, it relies neither on insects nor 
wind nor water for pollination, the flowers being self- 
pollinated. A more surprising commingling is that 
which is illustrated by A. D. Cotton in his report on 
the Seaweeds of the Clare Island district (Proc. Royal 
Irish Academy, vol. xxxi., 1912), where, on peaty soil 
a little above mean high-tide level, the Sea Pink is 
shown forming a sward with a peculiar dwarf form of 
Fucus (F. vesiculosus, var. muscoides) and a few other 
salt-marsh Seed Plants, suchas Schlerochloa (Glyceria), 
Glaux, Salicornia. The Sea Pink is highly evolved 
florally, and differs widely from the Saltwort in its 
abundant production of leaves and showy flowers, the 
absence of any conspicuous xerophile characters, and 
the fact that it is not confined to the coasts, being 
often a member of the alpine flora of our higher hills. 
In its association with Fucus it may be claimed that it 
is the latter which is “out of water,’ as it never 
produces fruit, increasing solely by means of vegeta- 
tive growth. At the same time, so closely does it 
press its partner in the struggle for room, that the 
Sea Pink fails to form its usual robust clumps, its stem 
being mostly unbranched and its stature dwarfed. 
Viewing generally the migration of the Seed Plants 
from land to water, we see that the fresh waters of 
the world, untenanted by other large plants, have been 
