SOME INTERESTING BOTANICAL FACTS. Ixv 
of foggy days—cold, clammy fog—these stomata are 
clogged and prevented from performing the process 
of breathing. Nature comes, as she so often does, 
to the rescue. A liberal coating of hairs tends to 
prevent the clogging of the stomata, and hence 
healthy plants are thus produced. One can observe 
a tendency in native plants to have this growth in- 
creased. Mention may be made of afew. Anthriscus 
sylvestre has a hairy stem in Orkney, and is glabrous, 
as described in botanical books. Jasione montana 
is hairier in Orkney. Then in Walls, Dr Fortescue 
reports that Calluna vulgaris appears in some parts 
as a hairy variety. Such are a few of the many 
species that Nature seems to take under her pro- 
tecting care. Some plants, as silene inflata and 
Polygonum amphibium are glabrous in damp, and 
hairy in dry situations. These hairs are also safe- 
guards against too rapid evaporation. 
All round our coasts there are succulent plants 
—plants with thicker leaves. Succulent leaves are 
said to retain their moisture longer, and are thus 
suited to dryer areas. Some plants have their leaves 
so much altered by the influence of the sea as to 
form new varieties. Huphrasia maritima (Hook.) 
and Plantago maritima, var. linearis, are cases in 
point. Animals do not care for these leathery leaves, 
and consequently there is a large survival of plants so 
constituted. Anyone who has noticed a considerable 
area of Kakile maritima will have noticed that these 
tempting plants are seldom touched, unless provender 
is short. Last summer the rabbits in this neighbour- 
hood—and they were abundant—seldom touched the 

