174 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



though found near the sea-shore, do not differ in 

 their physiological structure from those occupying 

 inland situations, we shall notice those only 

 which are specially adapted to such localities. 

 The house-leek, which belongs to the order 

 Crassulacese, so called because of their thick, suc- 

 culent leaves, may be considered as a type of those 

 we now refer to. All such plants flourish in 

 places which would be fatal to those differently 

 organised. They can occupy the driest situations, 

 where not a particle of grass, and not even moss, 

 can grow, such as naked rocks, old walls, hot, dry 

 sands exposed alternately to the fiercest rays of 

 the sun and the heaviest night-dews. They re- 

 present in the temperate regions of the earth the 

 cactus, and other succulent plants of tropical 

 countries, the structure of which enables them to 

 flourish in similar circumstances. 



One of the most familiar examples of the kind 

 of plants now referred to is the Sedum or stone- 

 crop, several varieties of which exist in Britain, 

 and flourish in the dry sand of the sea-shore. 



We have already stated that the function per- 

 formed by roots of the algse or sea-weeds, seems 

 chiefly, if not altogether, to be that of fixing the 

 plants to one place. The same remark may 

 almost be made as to the roots of the succulent 

 plants of the sea-shore. The places in which 

 they grow afford so very small a quantity of 

 moisture, except during rains or when the spray 

 of the waves reaches them during a storm, that 

 in general the root, even were its powers of 



