86 KENTISH BOTANY. [MaVCh, 



channel might soon be restored to its former magnitude ; but it 

 is certain that the owners of the marshes of St. Nicholas, Chislet, 

 Sarre, and Monkton, will do all that money and engineering skill 

 can accomplish to avert so great a calamity. 



This walk along the sea-wall explained the cause of the disap- 

 pearance of the ancient channel. 



The marsh plants, or the vegetation of the flats from Pegwell 

 Bay to Reculver may be soon despatched. 



Apium graveolens was universally associated with (Enanthe 

 Lachenalii, fringing the margins of the dykes, drives, or ditches ; 

 and in the ditches themselves grew, Slum angustifolium, Nuphar 

 lutea, Myriophyllum spicatum and M. verticillatum, Utricularia 

 vulgaris, Callitriche of several forms, Butomus umbellatus, very 

 abundant and XnwxYmwiSparganium simplex and S.ramosum,Pota- 

 mogetum lucens, P. perfoliatus, P. pectinatuS) and, very sparingly, 

 P. compressus, ZannicheUia palustris, Scirpus lacustris, the variety 

 glaucus, with several Charas, of which C. hispida was one. 



The plants on the meadows appeared to be very few ; but 

 Hordeum pratense and H. maritimum abounded.* 



The stragglers as they are called, the awkward squad, were 

 not numerous. The only plants we saw belonging to this ill- 

 favoured class above and beyond those already recorded were 

 Phalaris canariensis, on a dung-heap near Minster; and Hype- 

 ricum calycinum, by the roadside near St. Peter's. 



This is but a meagre list for so large a portion of Kent as the 

 Isle of Thanet occupies, but it was all that we saw of an interest- 

 ing character during a week's stay^ when every day was fine, 

 and without a shower, or even a cloud, except one, and the 



* " In a piece of marsh land neai* Meregate, called the Brooks, botanists, before 

 it was overflowed by the sea, have observed jagged Sea Orach, Englisli Cole- 

 veort, prickly Samphire or Sea Parsnip, Besome Plantaine, and in the marshes near 

 the road to Sandwich the round-rooted bastard Cuperus {Ci/perus), Stone Bramble, 

 or Hasp." — Lewis, Hist. Tenet. 



In botanical terms, the plants found by botanists in a place now covered by 

 the ocean were, Atriplex laciniata, which is still found near Eeculver and in 

 Pegwell Bay ; Cramhe mariiima, yvhiah. may grow about Broadstau-s, though we 

 did not see it, but it still grows on the Western side of Pegwell Bay, near Kings- 

 down (see 'Phytologist' v. p. 2-il) ; EcMnophora spinosa, or Sea Parsnip, which 

 once grew on the coast of Kent as well as on that of Lancashire, and which grows 

 on the opposite side of the channel : Besom plantaine is Rose plantain, a variety of 

 Plantago major ; Cupenls is Scirpus man/imus, which is plentiful everywhere in 

 tliese salt marshes. 



