VEGETATION OF ROCKY GROUND. 281 



Convolvulus forming thorny shrubs, not tmlike our 

 furze-bushes. It is singular to see such rigid and dry- 

 looking sticks, yielding, in their season, flowers of the 

 same structure and delicacy as the beautiful Bindweed 

 of our hedges. 



Rocky ground along the coast has its peculiar plants, 

 but perhaps a less numerous list than that with which 

 the sands supply us. Of course I omit a large num- 

 ber which are not confined to the shore, though they 

 often mainly contribute to form some of the sweetest 

 of the minute pictures that abound along the nooks 

 and coves of the sea-coast. Primroses and Violets and 

 Wild Thyme, are as abundant by the shore as they 

 are in inland places, and so are Wild Roses. But there 

 is one species of Rose, Rosa spinosissima, the origin of 

 all the garden varieties of Scotch Roses, which is most 

 abundant by the shore, growing either among rocks or 

 on the sands. In the latter situation it is often ex- 

 tremely stunted, its stems not rising more than two or 

 three inches above the surface, but even in that humble 

 condition crowned with the large milk-w r hite blossom of 

 their kind. The leaves of this species are peculiarly 

 small and neat, and its stems densely clothed with slen- 

 der, spreading spines. On various parts of the English 

 coast, especially in the south, different kinds of Helian- 

 themum, or Rock-rose, cover maritime rocks, and are gay 

 the whole summer with ever-renewing troops of white 

 or yellow flowers whose crumpled petals scarcely last a 

 day. The stamens of these plants are sensitive. If the 

 filaments be touched on the outside, near the base, the 

 tuft will be seen gradually to open, till they lie down in 



