36 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



A little spreading plant, with linear leaves, 

 called the sea pearl- wort (Sagina maritima), is very 

 common on the sea-coasts of England, Ireland, 

 and Scotland. Those who know our other two 

 species of pearl-wort, would at once recognise 

 this, but it has no bright petals to invite attention. 

 Its little green calyx is its only flower. The 

 stems are about two inches high, spreading at the 

 base, and its leaves are slender, smooth, and suc- 

 culent. The stems and flower- cups are often quite 

 reddish or purplish in tint. It blossoms from May 

 to August. 



No pretensions to beauty have the tribe of 

 plants which will next be noticed, but they are a 

 marked feature of sea-side vegetation, on some of 

 our shores where they ' abound. These are the 

 different species of atriplex, or orache, some of 

 which are to be found on almost all parts of our 

 coast. They have mostly grey, or indeed whitish 

 green leaves, and the flowers usually grow in 

 green, or yellow, or reddish coloured spikes ; but, 

 excepting when they are red, are not at all showy 

 blossoms. The leaves of the shrubby orache, or 

 sea purslane (Atriplex portulacoides], are of a sil- 

 very whiteness. This shrub-like plant, however, 

 is not common, though it grows on muddy sea- 

 shores of some parts of England and Ireland. Its 

 stems are one or two feet high, and its flowers, 

 which appear in July and August, are small, and 

 of a yellowish green. It makes a good pickle. 



The frosted sea orache (Atriplex laciniata) is by 

 no means uncommon on sandy shores, and has much 

 broader leaves than the shrubby kind. The whole 

 plant looks as if covered thickly with hoar frost. 

 In salt marshes, as well as on waste inland grounds, 



