CRUCIFEEOUS PLANTS. 273 



mass with its matted roots. Still nearer to the beach, 

 and even among the larger stones that border it, many 

 gay-flowered plants are seen scattered about. The 

 Yellow-horned Poppy (Gflaucium luteum) and the Eringo 

 (Eringium maritimum) are very characteristic of such 

 a locality. The Horned Poppy forms a large crown of 

 deeply-cut and very rough leaves, from which rise seve- 

 ral straggling stems that lie along the ground, bearing 

 here and there large yellow flowers, succeeded by horn- 

 like pods, several inches in length. The Eringo is more 

 erect, branching and bushy, and exceedingly rigid, with 

 blue-green cut leaves, spinous like those of holly, and 

 dense heads of small blue flowers. Several cruciferous 

 plants, with flowers having four petals, forming a cross, 

 and succeeded by long or short green pods, are peculiar 

 to the sea-coast. One of these is the Sea-kail, well known 

 in cultivation, but which may also be found on several 

 sandy shores. Another is the Wild Cabbage (Brassica 

 oleracea), supposed to be the origin of all the varieties 

 of garden cabbage and greens, including cauliflower and 

 brocoli in the list ; these latter being monstrous states 

 of the flowering branches. Wild Cabbage is particularly 

 abundant under Dover cliffs, and all along that chalky 

 shore ; and in severe springs the young sprouts, which 

 are earlier than those produced in gardens, are collected 

 and brought to market. Some parts of the cliffs look 

 precisely like cabbage-gardens. Another plant of this 

 family, the Sea-rocket (Cakile maritimd), with weak, 

 smooth stems and rather succulent, pinnatifid leaves and 

 purplish flowers, is common in sandy places. And two 

 species of Stock (Matthiola incana and M, sinuatd) are 



