SEA-SIDE PLANTS. ? 



grows in luxuriance on the refuse of the lead mine. 

 The sea itself has on its bed immense tribes of 

 marine vegetation, the food and home of its living 

 creatures ; and where but in the sound of its 

 waves shall we find that bright flower of our sand 

 and shingle, the yellow horned poppy ? 



There are some features in our wild saline 

 plants which, while they are not invariable or 

 peculiar to them, yet are very general. They are 

 usually very succulent, and their stems and foliage 

 have on them more or less of a sea-green powder, 

 a kind of pale green or whitish bloom. Leaves 

 or stems covered with this are termed by botanists 

 glaucous, and a very familiar instance of glaucous 

 foliage may be seen in the outer leaves of the 

 common cabbage. The succulent nature of sea- 

 side plants renders them suitable for soik which 

 yield little nourishment ; for succulent plants have 

 many pores, by means of which they readily im- 

 bibe moisture, which is long retained in their juices, 

 and which, deriving as they do from rains or dews, 

 renders them less dependent on nutriment to be 

 obtained from the root. The common houseleek 

 and stonecrop of our house-tops are nourished far 

 more by the atmosphere than by the soil ; and so 

 are the aloe and the fig marigold, and the ice-plant 

 of desert lands, many of which are like the plants 

 of our sea-side, too, in the glaucous nature of their 

 green. 



One of our sea-side plants, the Samphire ( Crith- 

 mum maritimum), is known, at least by name, to 

 most persons. Several of our early poets have 

 alluded to it, and its frequent use as a pickle ren- 

 ders it familiar to many. Not one of our native 

 plants can yield so good, and warm, and aromatic 



