532 



country. Most of the cliffs were bare, except towards their summits ; 

 but the glens and broken declivities were covered with thickets, where 

 privet [Liguslrum vuUjare) was very abundant. Here, wherever the 

 ground allowed, little potato- gardens had been formed, where doubt- 

 less, at a future time, olitory stragglers will get in, and contend for a 

 native origin. 



Some of the ravines I passed, hollowed deep into the soil, were as 

 red and bare as the craters of a volcano. The profile of the lofty 

 range of cliffs extending from Budleigh, when looking back towards 

 the flag-staff", presented an appearance like monstrous giants reclining 

 on the shore, with their feet spread out towards the sea, and was very 

 impressive. From the head of the cliffs a down, shaggy with ling 

 and bright with Erica Tetralix in several moist spots, stretched far 

 away ; and somewhere here a friend had told me of a bog where he 

 had gathered Osmunda regalis, growing very lofty and luxuriant. I 

 struck off", therefore, for a morass I saw before me, surrounded with 

 Sphagnum, which, however, proved so very wet and yielding, while a 

 wide band of black mud lay beyond, that my efforts to get well up to 

 it were unavailing. Evening, too, was progressing ; and with a long 

 trudge before me I was compelled to turn my face seaward. In 

 returning I came upon a single specimen of Orchis Morio, the only 

 one I saw in my Devonshire ramble, and I presume rare in the 

 county. In the list of plants appended to 'Jones's Botanical Tour in 

 Devon,' O. Morio is entirely absent, though O. mascula is given. 



A long point of sandstone extends far into the sea between Bud- 

 leigh Salterton and Exmouth, after passing the highest range of cliffs ; 

 and on either side of this were some singular, secluded, deep, gloomy 

 dens, excavated by the sea, as if intended for the perpetration of deeds 

 of darkness. On the western side of the point the sea had so bro- 

 ken down the sandstone rocks, that it seemed as if a huge quarry had 

 been excavated there, such monstrous masses lav scattered about in 

 all directions ; the cliff" itself shattered almost to fraguients. Further 

 on towards Exmouth a little, curious, dark cove was formed, at a point 

 of sandstone where its marly covering had been nearly washed away ; 

 and it aj)peared like a bald old man whose hair had been denuded by 

 the storms of life. In the twilight I descended from the cliff's to the 

 sea-shore, where, amidst the sandy dunes, it became diflficult to find 

 a ])alh, and so had a wearisome ramble on the yielding shingle to 

 Exmouth. 



Alay 01. — The floral ensigns of the solstitial season now fully con- 



