JULY 83 



love of chalk, it will grow anywhere. The statices, or 

 sea lavenders, seem also to rejoice in the drought, and 

 this is not to be wondered at, for though they grow in 

 places where the atmosphere is moist with sea-spray, 

 they are often found among the rocks where there is 

 the smallest amount of soil. There are many species, 

 and all handsome plants which remain in flower a long 

 time, and if picked before they are quite faded they 

 may be kept all through the winter. Most of them 

 are hardy, though there are some, perhaps the hand- 

 somest, from the Canary Islands, which can only be 

 kept in the greenhouse. Linnaeus took the names of 

 Statice and Limonium from Pliny, though I should 

 think it certain that Pliny's plants were in no way 

 related to our sea lavenders ; the older writers classed 

 them amongst the caryophylli, or gilliflowers, and we 

 still keep a remembrance of that in the name of sea 

 pink for the armeria or thrift, which is so closely 

 allied to the sea lavender that botanically it only 

 differs by having its flowers in a close head instead of 

 in a spike. The statices and armerias are found 

 throughout the whole of the northern hemisphere as 

 high north as the Arctic Circle, and there are nearly 

 a hundred species, of which we have five in Great 

 Britain. 



But though the drought may be favourable to some 



