SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 15 



or two of the gayest flowers of our sea-side. We 

 have not one peculiar to the coast which is so 

 handsome as that large flower, the yellow horned 

 poppy ( Glaucium luteum), whose deep gold-coloured 

 petals wave to every wind that comes murmuring 

 over the face of the sea, and fall at night from their 

 stem. Though this flower cannot be found on 

 every sandy shore or shingly beach, yet it is very 

 common. At Sandgate and Dovor, as well as in 

 many other places, it grows on the beach scarcely 

 beyond the reach of the tide ; and, indeed, when 

 the winter storm brings the waves higher than 

 usual, they must flow above hundreds of the roots 

 of this flower. The petals of these large and 

 showy blossoms are crumpled, and, like those of 

 our field poppies, seem as if they had been rolled 

 up tightly in their flower-cups before they opened 

 to the light of day. The large leaves, sheathing 

 at their base around the stem, have the sea-green 

 bloom so often found on sea-side vegetation ; and 

 the botanic name of the genus, Glaucium, originated 

 in the Greek word for sea-green. Nor do the 

 leaves loose their greenness when winter winds have 

 borne away all beauty from the few plants on the 

 shore. There they are lying over the barren 

 shingle, to remind us that Nature lives,, and still 

 delights in her own verdant tints. The upper 

 leaves are more smooth, but the lower ones are 

 hairy, almost prickly; and the seed-vessels, which 

 are pods like horns, sometimes a foot long, and 

 curved, are rough with many minute tubercles on 

 their surface. This plant is found also in the 

 Carolinas and Virginia, and it may be cultivated 

 in gardens, but never grows wild inland. A 

 beautiful scarlet horned poppy ( Glaucium cormcu- 



