CHAPTER XIV 



SEASIDES AND STRAND PLANTS 



MANY peculiarities and conditions of plant life depend 

 upon the way in which the world is worked, that is, upon 

 certain laws which are universally true, yet quite of a 

 simple and obvious character. 



Winds carrying water from the sea will travel far 

 inland, raining in a mild and benignant manner upon 

 lowland valleys and plateaux, but expending the whole 

 of their energy in furious deluges whenever any con- 

 veniently situated mountain range forces them to rise 

 into a cooler atmosphere. On these highlands, rain 

 forests or peat mosses collect and retain the water, but 

 allow it to escape only gradually. The mountain streams 

 carry down peat, silurian and indeed every kind of 

 geological particle, so that their silt, by the time most 

 of it is spread out flat in the valley lands and holms, is 

 of great fertilising value. But in the end, such rivers 

 still full of sediment pass out to sea and become dis- 

 turbed and mixed up with erratic shore currents and 

 changing tides. 



When the fresh and salt water meet, especially when 

 its motion is checked, as often happens, the silt falls as 

 sediment. It is in this way that are formed the great 

 shifting banks of mud and of sand, which occupy miles 

 of our estuaries and extend far out to sea. 



At low tide, though only but a small proportion are 

 exposed, there are hundreds or thousands of acres of 

 these gently curved banks, intersected by intricate and 

 capricious channels, continually altered or newly formed 

 by the river and tides. 



