76 SAMPHIRE. 



some of which, made out of one trunk, will hold 

 twenty persons. Bears and wild cats sometimes 

 live in the hollow stems of these trees during the 

 winter months. 



Samphire, Crith'mum marit'imum, is in the 

 same class and order with the Elm : it grows 

 wild on the sea-shore, but is never covered by the 

 water ; and a knowledge of this was useful, in a 

 way that might not have been expected, to some 

 French sailors, who were shipwrecked near 

 Beachy-head, in Sussex. The vessel, to which 

 these poor men belonged, was driven on shore by 

 a storm, in the month of November, 1821 ; the 

 whole crew were washed overboard; and only four 

 escaped from the sea by climbing to the top of a 

 heap of rocks which had fallen from the cliff above. 

 It was a very dark night; and they expected every 

 moment to be swallowed up by the waves, when 

 one of them found a plant, growing among the 

 rocks, which he knew to be samphire. As this 

 convinced them that the tide did not rise so high, 

 they knew that they were safe, and did not move 

 from the place till day- break, when they were seen 

 by the people on the cliffs, who immediately came 

 to their assistance. 



I shall conclude to-day, by telling you something 

 about a few foreign trees, and our own useful 

 plant, the Flax, which are in the class Pent- 

 andria. 



