20 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



than the sea-side kind, and was found originally in 

 Bay's time truly wild in England near Plymouth, 

 where it still grows. It has also been seen on 

 some spots near the sea at the north of England, 

 but it has probably been introduced there in 

 ballast. Throughout Italy, France, and Flanders 

 it is a most common flower ; and so general are the 

 eryngos in North America, that nearly one hun- 

 dred species have been described as growing wild, 

 and one is in so frequent use as a medicine, for the 

 relief of hysterical complaints, as to have acquired 

 the familiar name of Fit- weed. 



But, quitting for awhile the velvet-like sands 

 which border our sea, we must in imagination 

 linger by the cliffs near them. Tall venerable 

 cliffs are they, on whose brow time seems to have 

 written no changes, and which might give to 

 England its name of Albion, as well as they did 

 in days of yore. They have their own peculiar 

 herbage, besides being decked by the milkwort, 

 and the rest-harrow, and the beautiful yellow 

 chlora, plants of the chalk soil everywhere through- 

 out our land. All up their sides we see the green 

 patch here and there, 



" And down their slanted glory move 

 Scents from the flowers that grow above." 



One of the plants which is not wild elsewhere, 

 is the sea-side cabbage, or cliff cabbage, as it is 

 sometimes called ; the Brassica oleracea of the bota- 

 nist. It is not a common plant, though in some 

 places very abundant. On the cliffs of Dovor, as 

 well as on some portions of the beach, it is plenti- 

 ful, and growing up beyond the reach of the waves, 

 yet requiring the saline air for its production, the 

 clumps of this plant, with its glaucous green leaves, 



