Pool up to and above Poolton bridge ; this plant thrives 

 in gardens, and is well worth transxDlantation. Riippia 

 grows in the salt pools in the same locality, and a large 

 plot of ground near the Seacombe slip, apparently in- 

 tended for a dock, is covered by a most curious vegetation, 

 including the jointed Glass- wort. 



27^6 Sand-hills. — It would be vain to attempt a notice 

 of the multitude of interesting plants found upon the 

 Sand-hills from the Dee to Southport, excejjt in a paper 

 especially devoted to the subject. These wild mounds 

 have many features entirely their own : we gain a sandy 

 peak, and what a wide-spread scene of busy life is before 

 us. Look at the opposite shore, where the houses rise 

 tier above tier, like the heads of a crowd at a spectacle — 

 all are jealous to have a fair view of the rippling waves, 

 and their own full share of the sweet sea breeze, and 

 with good reason too ; time there is often short and 

 precious ; many a father of a family finds in those 

 dwellings a fortnight's solace after fifty weeks of toil. 

 We may imagine he is looking with a telescope through 

 that open window, Avhilst the mother is watching how 

 the sea air restores the colour to some faded cheek ; the 

 little ones are away, we may see them just below, like 

 dots at the edge of the waves, digging the sand Avith 

 their tiny spades. 



Those glorious ships, how proudly they enter port, and 

 how hopefully they depart : and what a fleet of steamers, 

 some so nigh we may hear the roar of their paddle- 

 wheels ; others far away, hidden by the waves, but we 

 know where they are by their long dusky streamers ; 

 more than all we have before us the sea itself, the 

 world's sea, that washes the shores of every land. How 

 great and grand and good is. the earth where God has 

 placed man. But listen ! there is music too, sweet music, 

 high over head : if sound there be that can express an 



