8 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



a flavour for a pickle as this ; arid it has been a 

 favourite with good housewives for many years ; 

 for an old song of Heywood's, enumerating the 

 cries of London in his time, has this line, 



" I ha' rock samphier, rock samphier." 



The inhabitants of places whose rocks abound 

 with this plant use it not only as a pickle, but also 

 as an ingredient in salads ; and they also eat it as 

 a culinary vegetable. It is sometimes grown in 

 gardens and pots, and it appears under certain 

 circumstances to thrive well. Thus Braddick, the 

 horticulturist, who cultivated the samphire in 

 Thames Ditton, on a sheltered and dry spot, well 

 screened from the morning sun, and who sprinkled 

 the soil where it grew with powdered barilla, 

 remarks of it, "This I do to furnish the plant with 

 a supply of soda, since, in its native place of growth, 

 it possesses the power of decomposing sea-water, 

 from which it takes the fossil alkali, and rejects the 

 muriatic acid." This horticulturist also protected 

 it from the cold of winter, and he found that by 

 this mode of treatment the plants flourished most 

 plentifully, and produced a large supply of leaves 

 and shoots, which were cut twice in the season. 



The stem of the samphire is about a foot high, 

 round and leafy ; and it has dense clusters of 

 greenish-white flowers. The whole plant is fleshy 

 and glaucous, with a salt aromatic flavour. It 

 grows on several rocky shores of our southern 

 coast, but it is not common in the north of Eng- 

 land. It is very rare on the rocks of Scotland; 

 and Sir William Hooker remarks of it, " It is 

 found only, I believe, on the coast of Galloway, 

 and thence northward to Colzean Castle, Ayrshire 



