THE FLORA. 69 



voyagers and colonists of a thousand years ago left many 

 traces of their visitings upon the coasts of Lancashire, has 

 often been pointed out by antiquaries, and the presence of 

 this old word would seem to supply another illustration of the 

 ancient Danish presence. Botanically, this useful grass is 

 the Ammophila arundinacea. The underground stems run 

 to a length of many yards. Extending itself in this manner, 

 advantage is taken of the centrifugal tendency of the pknt to 

 strengthen the sandhills artificially ; portions of stem bein<? 

 pegged down wherever it is desired either to promote 

 accumulation of the sandy particles, or to prevent wasting 

 away. 



The little grey salix, the foliage of which often shines with 

 silvery lustre, is botanically, as the name imports, in essential 

 characters, a willow. Very pretty, in early summer, are the 

 innumerable catkins ; and a few weeks later, when the ripe 

 white cottony seed is discharged, most curious is the spectacle, 

 the quantity being so vast as often to be gathered up by the 

 eddying wind in what, but for the season, might be taken for 

 snow-drifts. Several different varieties have been distin- 

 guished, but there are no absolute and permanent differential 

 marks. It is quite enough to speak of the plant shortly and 

 simply as Salix repens, the sandhills willow. 



Upon the roots, or half-buried stems and branches, there 

 occurs here and there, beyond Birkdale, and thenceforwards 

 to Ainsdale, that extremely curious parasitic plant, the " yellow 

 Birds-nest " Monotropa Hypopitys. Like most other parasitic 

 plants, it is entirely destitute of green leaves. Everything, 

 from the ground upwards, is yellow. The stems, five or six 

 inches high, are primrose-coloured ; the nodding crest of 



