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HINTS AND NOTES 



Sea Holly, Samphire, Absinth, Centaury, Sea 

 Plantain, Sea Club Rush, Marram Grass, 

 Crested Dog's Tail Grass, Seaside Manna 

 Grass, Rushy Wheat Grass, Lyme Grass, 

 and these continue in flower till August and 

 September. Not until August do Sea Campion, 

 Sea Rush, and Grass Wrack commence to 

 flower. 



The Duration of Maritime Plants. There 

 are several reasons why maritime plants should 

 be uniform in their duration. They flower late 

 as a whole, hence there is scarcely scope for 

 many of an annual or biennial nature. The 

 depth to which their rhizomes and roots pene- 

 trate demands that they should be of long 

 duration, for such a foothold must be obtained 

 before the necessary flowering and seeding can 

 occur, and this takes a long time to secure. 



The possibility of germination is rather re- 

 mote, for there are so many disadvantages 

 with which the seeds have to contend, even 

 if they are not blown completely away from 

 their suitable habitat (as may happen in a 

 large number of cases). This causes the small 

 patches of many species. Hence it is not 

 surprising that maritime plants are almost 

 entirely of a perennial character. The great 

 development of the vegetative parts of such 

 trailers as Sea Campion, &c. , and their resting 

 buds or hibernacula, are all characteristic of 

 perennials. 



A few, however, are annuals, producing 

 much seed, as Yellow Horned Poppy, which, 

 sometimes, may be also perennial. Sea Rocket, 

 a fleshy plant, is also annual, and so again 

 are Saltwort, Crested Dog's Tail Grass, and 

 Squirrel Tail Grass. Scurvy Grass and Woad 

 are biennials. All the rest are perennials, 

 herbaceous, and deciduous, and except two 

 shrubs die down in winter as a rule. 



Pollination of Seaside Plants. As one walks 

 along the shore one is struck by the almost 

 entire absence of land animals. All the forms 

 one meets with are in fact marine animals, 

 and these are the flotsam and jetsam of the 

 waves, save in the little pools left by the tide 

 where some living shells, starfish perchance, 

 or sea urchins, manage to survive. Rocky 

 coasts are more prolific. But the most obvious 

 factor to the entomologist is the absence of 

 insects. This applies to the low sandystretches. 

 Chalk cliffs and other rocky coasts with land 

 plants, such as heaths, &c., are, however, very 

 often the habitat of butterflies. Beetles are the 

 most frequent insects on the coast, and a few 

 species are known to inhabit the salt water 

 itself. 



These facts have a considerable bearing upon 

 the pollination of plants along the shores. For 

 in the absence of insect visitors plants adapted 



for cross-pollination by insects are unable to 

 effect cross-pollination. It, however, self-polli- 

 nation is also possible seed will be set. Sea 

 Campion is proterandrous whilst Sea Rush 

 is proterogynous, two examples showing that 

 there is a tendency to promote crossing. Sea 

 Lavender is dimorphic. Several sea-coast plants 

 are pollinated by aid of the wind, as Absinth, 

 Sea Plantain, Saltwort, Sea Club Rush, and 

 the grasses Crested Dog's Tail, Seaside Manna 

 Grass, Rushy Wheat Grass, Squirrel Tail 

 Grass, Lyme Grass are also pollinated by the 

 wind. Grass Wrack is pollinated by water. 



Dispersal of Seaside Plants. The special 

 character of the maritime habitats of plants 

 naturally affects dispersal of seeds of plants. 

 One feature to be noticed is the " spot-bound " 

 character of many of them. Many species of 

 seaside plants are restricted to a few localities. 

 In other cases they are confined to small 

 patches, perhaps owing to the character of 

 the soil. The dominant types, however, as 

 the Grasses on the sand dunes, locally form 

 continuous associations. The less dominant 

 types are in such cases discontinuous or 

 sporadic. 



In the salt marshes a number of the species 

 form again extensive societies, or even asso- 

 ciations, the conditions being more uniform. 

 The seeds of maritime plants are, as might 

 be expected where wind plays so great a part, 

 largely carried by the wind. The following 

 are dispersed by this agency, viz.: Woad 

 (partly), Sea Campion (censer fruit), Tamarisk, 

 Sea Holly, Samphire, Absinth (pollinated by 

 the same agency), Sea Lavender, Thrift (para- 

 chute arrangement), Sea Plantain, Saltwort, 

 and the Grasses. 



The Yellow Horned Poppy disperses its seeds 

 by aid of the tension in the pod, which causes 

 the pod to split open and to jerk the seeds, 

 which are numerous, to a distance. Other 

 plants, as Scurvy Grass, Woad (partly), Sea 

 Kale, Sea Rocket, Sea Purslane, Centaury, 

 Seaside Bindweed, Sea Rush, Sea Club Rush, 

 Sand Sedge, and Marram have also devices of 

 their own for dispersal of their fruits and seeds. 

 In Sea Buckthorn the berries are dispersed by 

 birds. Grass Wrack is dispersed by aid of the 

 water. 



The Soil of Maritime Plants. The out- 

 standing feature of maritime vegetation is the 

 saline character of the soil. Probably the area 

 to which the land is subjected to spray from 

 sea breezes is the limit of the area in which 

 the soil is saline. Rocky coasts and those 

 fringed by sand dunes may in a measure be 

 less subjected to impregnation with salts from 

 the sea. 



Since the soil along the coast is largely 



