356 PLANTS OF BRAUNTON BURROWS. [December, 



by the most luxuriant plants of Leycesteria formosa I ever saw, 

 and the old walls are richly besprinkled with Cheiranthus and 

 Centranthus. I may mention here that Leycesteria and Cen- 

 tranthus seem to have taken up a permanent position on the 

 rocks and walls about Torquay. 



On emerging from the village the road runs alongside the 

 river Taw, past coal-stores and lime-kilns, and its edges are en- 

 livened by the blue flowers of Cichorium Intybus. We now turn 

 to the left, and come to a gate up a wild lane, and are met by a 

 demand for sixpence for permission to go on to the Burrows, 

 whose great sand-hills and lighthovise we see dimly in the dis- 

 tance. The road now gets very rough, and lies between a high 

 bank on the left, which divides it from the river, and deep dykes 

 on the right in which grow a multitude of marsh plants, the 

 Hill-rush, whose great brown maces were waving lazily in the 

 hedge, Sparganivm ramosum, and Sedges innumerable. We go 

 on and on, and the road gets worse and the gates perpetual, till 

 a sharp turn to the right brings us to the beginning of the Bur- 

 rows. Here we alighted, and began to inspect our ground, and 

 were not long before we discovered a profusion of Viola Curtisii, 

 Torst., which Mr. Gosse and many others have described as 

 Viola lutea, which it is not. Erodium cicutarium a niaritimum 

 were also abundant, and Anagallis tenella, mingled with occa- 

 sional plants of A. arvensis and Lithospermum officinale. A pecu- 

 liar and sickening odour soon betrayed the presence of Hyosty- 

 amus, which, though not in flower, seemed determined we should 

 not pass it by unnoticed. We had now got fairly among the 

 sand-hills, and lost sight of all view, and, with the exception of 

 Juncus acutus and maritimus ?, found but few plants. Presently 

 we came on patches of turf which afforded us Lepigonum rubrum, 

 Sagina procumbens, Chlora perfoliata, Erythrcea pulchella, Cyno- 

 glosstim o^cinale, Reseda Liiteola, Galium veriim, Samolus Vale- 

 randi, Solanum Dulcamara jB lignosum, Ma rruMum vulgar e^, and 

 Hypericum humifusum. On ascending the sand-hills, a lovely 

 view burst on our sight, taking in Bideford and Appledore, and 

 the coast ovit to Hartland Point, on the left; and the long 

 reach of Burrows stretching away to Saunton rocks, and Baggy 

 Point, on the extreme right; the lighthouse, familiar to many 

 from Hullah's beautiful setting of Charles Kingsley's ^' Three 

 Fishers,^^ making a central point, while the '^ harbour bar was 



