the Coasts of Durham and Northumberland. 43 



and Compositse : this is caused in a great degree by many of 

 those plants being poor specimens, not in flower, and often dwarf 

 and puny in their growth ; besides, very many are foreign species. 



It may be asked, do many of these ballast-plants continue to 

 flourish in a naturalized condition for a long period ? and have 

 they spread in the vicinity or superseded the more common 

 plants of the district ? 



To these questions I may reply that the more tender kinds 

 flourish for two or three seasons, but are soon killed by the 

 frost of a severe winter or the cutting east winds in spring. 

 Several sorts have been carried to some distance from the coast 

 by ballast taken for the repairs of the railways. Antirrhinum 

 Linaria, the Meliloti, the two species of Sinapis now named Di- 

 plotaxiSy Spartium scoparium, Anthyjllis vulneraria^ Senecio vis- 

 cosus, some other Compositae, and Leguminosae may be met with 

 in spots where, some years ago, and before so many railways 

 were finished, they did not occur at all. But I do not think 

 that the ordinary plants of the district have as yet undergone 

 any material decrease or any considerable change. 



Mr. M. A. Lawson, a zealous and good botanist, who resides 

 during a part of the year very near to the two Hartlepools, and 

 has had more frequent opportunities of examining the ballast 

 species there than I have had, thus describes the appearance of 

 annuals in the ballast when first deposited, and the succession 

 of perennials after a brief period : — 



" For a long time I have observed that after the ballast is first 

 thrown out, it is covered almost solely with annuals ; but in two 

 or three years these annuals have either entirely disappeared, or 

 else, from their scarceness, have become a very inconspicuous 

 part of the flora, and a vast variety of perennials have sprung up 

 in their place, which in their turn overrun the whole ground, 

 and then gradually dwindle away to a most minute fraction of 

 their former abundance, so that, even if there were no spot from 

 which they had entirely disappeared, it might be' reasonably 

 supposed that thev would in a few years, at the furthest, become 

 extinct" (p. 304, Trans. T. N. F. Club, vol. v. part 4, 1863). 



Between North Shields and Berwick-on-Tweed I believe there 

 are no large ballast-heaps, since along the coast of Northumber- 

 land only two quays or shipping-places of any size exist, namely 

 near Blyth and at Alnmouth, where, in fact, only coasting- 

 vessels or ships of light tonnage resort. And I know little 

 about what ballast-hills may have of late years been formed near 

 the Tweed at Berwick, as I have not been there recently ; but 

 most assuredly there must be some such mounds, because the 

 railway traffic and the increase of shipping in that port must 

 have introduced much coal-refusCj shingle, or ballast. 



