334 



SUMMER 



form thickets on the sandy and shingly wastes, and give 

 cover to the gulls and waders when wind and rain beat from 

 the sea. Sea-buckthorn has narrow hoary leaves, like some 

 dwarf willow, and bright orange berries in later summer, 

 which tempt gardeners to naturalise it as an ornamental 

 shrub. It is chiefly scattered about the sandy coasts of the 

 east of England, and is one of the plants framed to stand 



SEA BUCKTHORN 



drought. Shrubby sea-blite forms dense brakes of dull green 

 foliage at a few points along our coast ; its upright growth 

 makes it more noticeable than the common creeping kind, 

 and it is particularly abundant and conspicuous on the great 

 shingle ridge of the Chesil Beach. Rock, shingle, sand, 

 and mud have each their own company of sea-plants ; plants 

 of one type of soil seldom stray to the next, though the 

 swift alternations of English seaside landscapes may some- 

 times make them near neighbours. Sea-holly and sea-convol- 

 vulus love a sandy shore; the little blue-green bushes of 



