MICHAEUIAS DAISY.— ^6/6V' Trlpolium. 



C^a^ij Syngenesia. OrcZer Scperflua. Nat, Onl Cqup^j^u x. . 

 Compound Flowers. 



This plant is called also Sea Starwort, and 

 is one of the few flowers which deck the saline 

 soils in the neighbourhood of the ocean. It is 

 very common on the salt marshes, not only of 

 the sea, but of tidal rivers. Its blossom appears 

 in August and September ; the stem is often 

 three feet high, audits clusters of palelilac flowers 

 overtop the strongly-scented and grey-green 

 Southernwood, and the little fleshy-leaved Sand- 

 worts, and the tufts of Sea Lavander and of other 

 smaller plants of the marsh. Like many other 

 natives of saline soil, the stems and foliage are 

 very succulent, and have a saltish flavour, and 

 their surfaces are free from all down. It is 

 not an uncommon circumstance to find a cluster 

 of the Michaelmas Daisy, in Avhich the lilac 

 rays ai'e quite absent, and the disk only is to be 

 seen. Many of the plants which flourish in 

 the neighbourhood of the sea, grow, too, on 

 elevated mountains in inland countries. The 

 Thrift and Sea Milkwort, and several others, are 

 found on such spots ; but our Starwort never 

 grows wild but on salt land. It is, both in 

 flower and foliage, of too pale a colour to be 



