156 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



flourishing in salt marshes ; the upright sea-lyme- 

 grass, with straws three or four feet high, leaves 

 hard and stiff, and remarkable for having thorny 

 points ; the sea-barley or squirrel-tail grass, and 

 some species of sea-wheat-grass(Triicttm^miceum 

 and Triticum loliaceum), all of which make their 

 abode on the sand. The study of these various 

 seaside grasses affords much interest ; but it is 

 requisite to employ for this purpose the aid of a 

 botanical treatise, by which the minute pecu- 

 liarities of each species are specially described. 



Interesting, however, as the study of the seaside 

 grasses may be, they attract less attention than 

 those plants which bear coloured flowers, some of 

 which among those which flourish on the coast 

 possess no inconsiderable beauty. 



One of the most beautiful of those seaside 

 flowering plants is the sea-bindwood, of which the 

 scientific name is Convolvulus soldanella. Like 

 the bent, it is very useful in retaining the sand, 

 which without such numerous fibres as it throws 

 out might be easily blown away. The charac- 

 teristics of this plant render it easily to be 

 recognised. The root is creeping, the stems about 

 two feet in length, the leaves kidney-shaped and 

 somewhat thick and succulent, the flower-stalks, 

 like the two other species of convolvulus which 

 are found in inland localities, bearing a single 

 flower, which is large and of a purplish-pink 

 colour, with pale yellow plaits. 



Another flower which is found in gravelly places 

 on the sea-shores in the north of England, in 



