THE FLORA. 65 



Fishes, the variety is not great ; of Insects, the number is 

 considerable, including many that are esteemed rare. The 

 list of Mollusks is a slender one, and the Shells found on 

 these shores make no very great pretensions to diversity. 

 Commercially regarded, the shore is in some respects 

 immensely rich. So vast is the yield of cockles, that tons 

 are frequently sent off at a time ; and of shrimps the almost 

 daily capture is enormous. Among the sandhills, at varying 

 distances inland, there are shells of which we find no living 

 representatives upon the shore, obviously deposited at some 

 distant period, when the sea extended over a large tract of 

 country now of considerable elevation. 



In Botany, the plants common to uncultivated ground and 

 marshy places near the sea-coast occur in profusion. Of 

 Ferns there are but few ; Mosses are numerous, and include 

 several kinds which have hitherto been found only in the 

 neighbourhood of Southport. Of other Cryptogamic plants 

 there are plenty, so that at all seasons it is possible to procure 

 botanical subjects of one kind or another. 



THE SOUTHPORT FLORA. 



Although destitute of the romantic scenery which usually 

 implies corresponding variety of botanical habitat ; although 

 entirely wanting in deep and shady forest, limestone cliffs, 

 waterfalls, and running streams ; Southport is undeniably 

 rich in curious and interesting wild-flowers. Of late years, 

 it must be acknowledged, the great amount of draining 

 carried on in the suburbs of the town with a view to adapt- 

 ation of the land for building purposes, the construction 

 of new. roads, and the conversion of much of the originally 

 F 



