THE SEA-COAST 



241 



of inland origin which are widespread and 

 able to grow almost anywhere. 



The salt marsh varies considerably in regard 

 to the degree of moisture. In some cases 

 there are few or no pools, in others these are 

 general. In some cases there is a struggle 

 between inland types and salt-marsh plants, 

 in others the latter are entirely dominant. 



The Habits of Sea-coast Plants. The special 

 factors of the maritime habitats cause the 

 plants in each zone to have marked character- 

 istics. Generally the sandy coast vegetation 

 is composed of fleshy herbaceous types having 

 a branched or pyramidal habit. In many 

 cases the upright erect habit, giving the plants 

 a strict appearance, is developed. Others are 

 trailers, as some Oraches, Sea Bindweed, Sea 

 Purslane, &c. , and Sea Heath is a shrubby 

 type of trailer. Some are rosette plants, as 

 Thrift, Buckshorn Plantain (and these are 

 most general on rocky coasts). The grass 

 habit is adopted by a few, as Centaury, VVoad, 

 and the number of Sedges and Grasses is large. 

 A few are shrubs, as Sea Buckthorn, Tama- 

 risk (the latter with ericaceous habit), Coto- 

 neaster, the first spinose. 



On the shingle the habit is trailing, and the 

 plants produce resting shoots or hibernacula, 

 as in Sea Purslane, Sea Campion (procum- 

 bent). A few are pyramidal, and all are 

 fleshy, with the Sea Kale type of habit, as in 

 Sea Holly, Yellow Horned Poppy, &c. 



On the dunes the habit is trailing, as in 

 Seaside Bindweed, with subterranean stolons, 

 and the grasses produce long rhizomes, deeply 

 rooting. The grass habit is the dominant one. 

 In the salt marshes the habit is largely the 

 grass habit of the rushes, sedges, and grasses. 

 The shrub type is represented by Sea Elite. A 

 few have the rosette habit, as in Sea Lavender, 

 Thrift, Buckshorn Plantain. The trailing 

 habit is adopted by Sand wort, Sea Milkwort, 

 Procumbent Sea Elite. Arrowgrass and Sea 

 Plantain also have a grasslike habit. The 

 bulk of the plants are fleshy, except the 

 grasses, &c., and the shrubby types. Samphire 

 has a very marked strict habit. 



The Height of Maritime Plants. Most of 

 the maritime plants are herbaceous perennials. 

 Only a few attain the size of shrubs, and these 

 are quite local. Trees as a whole are absent. 

 The factors which regulate the height of mari- 

 time plants are chiefly wind, and the various 

 ways in which they are subjected to exposure. 

 The manner in which the few trees that grow- 

 by the sea-coast are affected by wind and 

 dwarfed has been shown. The shrubs, as 

 Tamarisk and Sea Buckthorn, are affected in 

 much the same way. Many of the plants, 

 especially those that grow next to the sea in 



the first or second zone, are trailing or pro- 

 cumbent plants, as Sea Bindweed, Sea Purs- 

 lane, Sea Campion, &c. 



The succulent character of so many of the 

 maritime plants prevents them from attaining 

 any great height, apart from the foregoing 

 factors. Their increase by growth is thus 

 lateral, not upward. The softness or looseness 

 of the soil also favours a low shrubby habit, 

 even amongst those that are more diffuse, as 

 in the case of Yellow Horned Poppy and Sea 

 Kale. Plants with the erect habit frequently 

 also have a procumbent habit in some situ- 

 ations, and there are some plants again, of 

 which there are several species, in which one 

 is erect and others are procumbent, showing 

 that the latter is of advantage to the plant, and 

 an adaptation to maritime conditions. Of such 

 type are Shrubby Sea Elite, which has an 

 allied species, Procumbent Sea Elite, and 

 Samphire, of which there are numerous species 

 (recently defined by Dr. C. E. Moss), in which 

 all stages from the erect to the prostrate habit 

 are represented. These facts tend to show that 

 the height of maritime plants is generally low, 

 since a low height is most favourable in such 

 habitats. 



The Flowering Seasons of Maritime Plants. 

 Maritime plants labour under disadvantages. 

 They are subjected to continual wind-force and 

 exposure, and where sea mists are constant, 

 a reduction in temperature (otherwise normal 

 at the coast) occurs, and frequent moisture, so 

 that they are as a whole late in flowering. 

 The radiation from sand and shingle is very 

 rapid, and therefore the ground temperature 

 is relatively high, with rapid cooling as a 

 result. But the plants are subjected to a 

 physiological drought, and the necessity of 

 developing long and far-reaching rhizomes 

 and thick and long roots, with, as a rule, 

 enormously developed vegetative organs, may 

 have much to do with this feature. 



The insects that pollinate the maritime 

 plants are largely drawn from the order 

 Coleoptera or Beetles, and as a whole these 

 insects are late in appearing. This may be 

 in part the reason. 



The earliest flowering plants amongst those 

 described in detail do not put forth so great a 

 number of leafy shoots, or develop rhizomes 

 on a large scale, and are shrubs, trailers, or 

 rosette plants, as, in May, Sea Milkwort, Scurvy 

 Grass, Sea Purslane, Tamarisk, Sea Lavender, 

 Thrift, Sea Buckthorn. In the next month, 

 June, Yellow Horned Poppy, Sea Kale, Sea 

 Rocket, Seaside Bindweed, Sand Sedge, 

 Squirrel Tail Grass commence to flower. July 

 is, however, essentially the month when mari- 

 time plants are generally blooming, as Woad, 



