18 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



in many parts of the eastern shores of England it 

 is abundant. The Kev. W. K. Drummond has 

 well described it : 



" The Eryngo here 



Sits as a queen among the scanty tribes 

 Of vegetable race. Around her neck 

 A gorgeous ruff of leaves, with snowy points, 

 Averts all rough intrusion. On her brow 

 She binds a crown of amethystine hue, 

 Bristling with spicula, thick interwove 

 With clustering florets, whose light anthers dance 

 In the fresh breeze like tiny topaz gems. 

 Here the sweet rose would die. But she imbibes 

 From arid sands, and salt sea dew-drops, strength. 

 The native of the beach, by nature form'd 

 To dwell among the ruder elements." 



The sea eryngo (Eryngium maritimum) has a 

 stem about a foot high, much branched, with 

 prickly strongly-veined leaves, resembling the 

 foliage of the holly, and dense heads of blue 

 flowers. This flower flourishes too on the coasts 

 of Ireland and Scotland; and travellers tell us 

 that it grows equally well along the European and 

 African shores of the Mediterranean. It is known 

 on the several parts of our coast by a variety of 

 names, as the sea hulver, sea holly, and sea holme. 

 Our common prickly holly formerly bore also the 

 names of hulver and holme, as well as that of 

 scarlet oak, and the general resemblance of a 

 branch of this plant to the holly bough, naturally 

 led to its familiar names. Not that the reader 

 must expect any similarity between the delicate 

 waxen-like flowers of our evergreen tree, and the 

 blossom of the eryngo ; for this is more like our 

 wild thistle flower, and so much so, that the author 

 has heard children on the coast call the plant the 

 blue sea thistle. The roots of the eryngo were 



