MOORLAND PLANTS 225 



diminish the free surface of the leaves. Heather, 

 many Saxifrages and Sedums are northern forms 

 belonging to this class. 



4. The leaves are woolly. The Edelweiss of 

 Switzerland is an Alpine example of the same thing. 



5. The leaves are succulent. The Sedums of our 

 northern highlands exhibit the same adaptation. 



Goebel has pointed out that maritime and saline 

 plants often exhibit contrivances which check trans- 

 piration, even in plants which are abundantly supplied 

 with water. Samphire is possibly a case in point, but 

 the rocky situations in which it grows are arid as well 

 as maritime, and it is not certain that its peculiarities 

 depend upon its being wetted occasionally with salt 

 spray. The Glass-worts are a better example, as 

 they grow on muddy sea-shores. They have the 

 leaves suppressed and the stems fleshy, like so many 

 plants of the desert. The little Frankenia, found in 

 salt marshes on our south-east coast, has rolled leaves, 

 like Crowberry. Thickened epidermis, woolly leaves, 

 and concealed stomates are also to be found among 

 the plants of the sea-shore. Here, though water 

 is plentiful, it can only be procured by separating it 

 from salts which greedily absorb water and do not 

 readily part with it. 



The one point common to maritime and Alpine 

 plants, I mean the difficulty which they have in 

 absorbing water, however abundant the supply, 

 may possibly have something to do with a fact, long 

 known and often speculated upon, viz. that certain 

 species are found in both situations. Scurvy-grass, 

 Sea-thrift, Sea Plantain and Sea Pearlwort are 



Q 



