Outlines of the Botany of the Isle of Wight. 503 



Turning into Sandown Bay we find a shore a little more favourable 

 to vegetation ; and accordingly Triticum junceum and T. laxum, Atriplex 

 arenaria, Ammophila, Salsola Kali, Convolvulus Soldanella, Cakile, &c., 

 will be found occupying the narrow strip of soil which lies at the foot of 

 the cliffs. It is here that was picked a solitary specimen of Euphorbia 

 Peplis, and Lathyrus maritimus is also said to have occurred on the 

 same beach. On the slipped banks will be gathered Scirpus Savii, 

 Osmunda regalis, and other species partial to boggy soil. At the 

 opposite extremity, where the sand meets the chalk, grows Medicago 

 denticulata. 



Wk&ecKff is in many places completely covered with Samphire, 

 Daucus maritimus, of far less dimensions than the Freshwater plant, 

 Glaucium luteum, and various other maritime and lime-loving species. 

 Here, too, flourishes the rare Euphorbia portlandica, most plentiful on 

 the Sandown side ; and on the crumbled chalk at the base of the cliff, 

 approachable from Whitecliff Bay, will be found Brassica oleracea 

 (sea-cabbage), in a station as truly wild as that of the Stock at 

 Compton. 



In Whitecliff Bay, Festuca arundinacea, Atriplex arenaria, A. 

 Babingtonii, and a few other sea-side species -are all that will be met 

 with. 



A small pool under Foreland contains Typha latifolia and Catabrosa 

 aquatica ; and it should be remembered that the slipped banks, wherever 

 lying close under the sea cliffs, often afford many species peculiar to 

 swampy situations. 



DIVISION II. 

 PLANTS OF THE NORTH TERTIARY DISTRICT. 



Leaving the coast, the surface of the northern portion of the island 

 is undulating, but never rises to any considerable elevation : its soil is 

 various, consisting chiefly of a strong clay with occasional patches of 

 gravel, sand,* or freshwater limestone, the latter producing a marked 

 effect upon the plants, as may be seen in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Ryde, where at Binstead will be gathered Inula Conyza, Poterium 

 Sanguisorba, Reseda Luteola, Gentiana Amarella. Pastinaca sativa 

 and other species seldom found except where the soil is strongly impreg- 

 nated with calcareous matter. In the same way the presence of sand 

 and gravel is at once attested by the Foxglove, the Hawkweeds, Carex 

 pallescens, Ulex nanus, Sarothamnus scoparius, &c., prominent objects 

 in the heaths and copses about Firestone, Guilford, Briddlesford, New 

 Copse, &c. There is also near Newport a considerable extent of soil 

 strictly sandy and similar in its vegetation to the greensand of the 

 -' Main Valley." 



* Chiefly found adjoining the Downs, on their north side, along the narrow 

 strip of Eocene vertical strata that crop out in the sands of Alum Bay, and at 

 Whitecliff. 



