UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 61 



form of leaf or blossom. Thousands of these are seen only by the sea-bird 



which wings its way above them, or by the adventurous gatlierers of samphire. 



It is not often we could say now of these cliffs : — 



' ' Half-way down 

 Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 

 Methinks he seems no bigger than his head." 



And it is well that samphire-gathering, both from the Shakspere cliff and 

 the cliffs at the eastern part of the old town of Dover, is pretty well discor.- 

 tinued. The plant was formerly gathered by suspending a rope from the 

 summit of the cliff, on which a man descended. In the year 1823 a man 

 was thus occupied, when the rope suddenly gave way, and he was dashed to 

 the earth and died immediately. This man had pursued his dangerous occu- 

 pation during the summers of forty years, and would often talk to visitors 

 of Shakspere and King Lear, jocosely saying that he himself was king in 

 that little domain, for none ventured to gather his samphire. Now and then 

 some adventurous young sailor clambers up the lofty steeps to gather some 

 tufts half-way up, just when those cliffs are looking most beautiful in their 

 summer flowers, and when, in the words of Agnes Strickland : — 



" The burnet there securely blows, "And there the emerald Samphire oft 



And seems to turn away Appears a tempting sight, 



When o'er her hardy bosom blows And lures the venturous boy aloft 



The drifting spray. To scale the height : 



" Unbidden there the borage springs, " The bugloss buds of crimson hue 



Grey lichens creep beneath, To azure flowers expand, 



And graceful persicaria flings Like changeful banner, bright to view, 



Her rosy wreath : By wild winds fann'd." 



Not one of our native plants can at all be compared in flavour with 

 this when pickled with vinegar and spices. It is very pleasantly aromatic, 

 both in odour and taste, and very succulent. It is not, however, prized as it 

 was some years since, for it was formerly not only pickled, but eaten raw as 

 a salad, or boiled for the table. Evelyn, in his treatise on " Sallet Herbs," 

 praises it very highly. It has been cultivated on inland spots with success, 

 in sheltered situations where the soil has been sprinkled with powdered 

 barilla. The name of Samphire appears to be a corruption of its old French 

 name Hnhe de St, Pierre ; the French now call it Crete marine. The plant is 

 the Meerfenchel of the Germans, and the Finichio marina of the Italians. Its 

 stems are usually about half a foot high, and much branched. Both stems 

 and foliage are of a pale green tint. It is a social plant, often forming large 

 masses a yard in diameter on the surface of the cliffs, often but a little above 

 tide-mark. The general notion that it only grows high up the cliffs is a mis- 

 taken one. It is a rare plant on the Scottish coasts. 



* * * * Fruit not prickly nor beaked ; much flattened. 



24. Angelica (Angdlica). 



\. Garden Angelica (A. archangdica). — Leaflets narrowly egg-shaped, 

 all sessile, some running so closely together as to form a wing on the stem, 

 terminal one 3-cleft. Plant biennial. This plant, which is the AngMcn 

 officinalis of many writers, is not truly Avild, though usually enumerated in 

 our British Flora, because it has long been naturalized here in consequence 



