60 A DESERT FRUIT. 



or flayed with a knife like the skin of an animal. This 

 outer layer prevents evaporation, and is a marked feature 

 of all succulent plants which grow exposed to the sun on 

 arid rocks or in sandy deserts. 



The tendency to produce rounded stems and leaves, 

 little distinguishable from one another, is equally notice- 

 able in many seaside plants which frequent the strip of 

 thirsty sand beyond the reach of the tides. That belt of 

 dry beach that stretches between high- water mark and 

 the zone of vegetable mould, is to all intents and 

 purpose a miniature desert. True, it is watered by 

 rain from time to time; but the drops sink in so fast 

 that in half an hour, as we know, the entire strip is as 

 dry as Sahara again. Now there are many shore weeds 

 of this intermediate sand-belt which mimic to a surprising 

 degree the chief external features of the cactuses. One 

 such weed, the common salicornia, which grows in sandy 

 bottoms or hollows of the beach, has a jointed stem, 

 branched and succulent, after the true cactus pattern, 

 and entirely without leaves or their equivalents in any 

 way. Still more cactus-like in general effect is another 

 familiar English seaside weed, the kali or glass wort, so 

 called because it was formerly burnt to extract the soda. 

 The glasswort has leaves, it is true, but they are thick 

 and fleshy, continuous with the stem, and each one 

 terminating in a sharp, needle-like spine, which effectually 

 protects the weed against all browsing aggressors. 



Now, wherever you get very dry and sandy conditions 

 of soil, you get this same type of cactus-like vegetation 

 plenties grasses, as the French well call them. The 

 species which exhibit it are not necessary related to one 



