29 
fleshy plants grow near the sea, but I think I may fairly say 
that our characteristic sea-side plants are glaucous and fleshy, 
almost without exception. 
First, what is “‘ glaucous.” It is a colour at once difficult to 
describe, and impossible to mistake if once seen. Babington 
defines it as “‘ green with a whitzs#-blue lustre,” and Balfour 
as ‘‘ covered with a pale green bloom.” Most of us can now 
recall the colour, and if not, we must try to find some plant 
which will teach us, once for all, the nature of this most cha- 
racteristic hue. Glaucium luteum, the Yellow-Horned Poppy, 
a very noteworthy sea-side plant, is likely to be the first you 
will find here, and takes its generic name from the prevailing 
colour of the plant. Sea Purslane, Sea Holly, and Sea Grom- 
well are also fine examples of the same colour. 
‘“‘Fleshy” needs less explanation, as the Samphire we may 
gather here will at once occur to you all as anexample. You 
will find the leaves of the Horned Poppy also very fleshy, and 
the others I mentioned just now illustrate the same peculiarity. 
Now with regard to the flowers, which as I said, are incon- 
spicuous, or this-that-or-the-other-zsk. My example of the 
Horned Poppy does not fail us here, though it illustrates the 
other properties better. The yellow is rather too vivid to be 
-ished ; but it contrasts badly with the intense yellow of the 
buttercup, or the decided pale yellow of the primrose. But 
the Samphire, the Sea-Holly, the Sea-Campion, and the Sea- 
Gromwell, with many others, have flowers whose colours look 
faded or as if seen through a fog, or perhaps still more 
perfectly, like the surface of a freshly gathered plum when 
the beauty of its purple sides is at once exalted and depressed 
by the presence of the d/oom. Sometimes as is the case with 
the Sea-Purslane and Sea-Campion, the whole plant appears 
as if dusted over with a whitish powder. 
And again, as regards their attachment to the soil. You 
will generally find with the decidedly sea-side plants, that 
this is one of two forms. Either by a very strong deep tap- 
root, often ludicrously disproportioned to the size of the 
_ plant belonging to it, as you may easily find out for yourselves 
in the case of a youngish specimen of the Horned-Poppy, 
or else by a number of short, and rather thin, but strong 
fibres. This last form chiefly obtains in the plants of salt 
marshes, but is not exclusively appropriated by them. In the 
