4 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



tain ; " and the pretty little euphrasy, or eye- 

 bright (Euphrasia officinalis), which grows equally 

 well on the pasture land far away from the sea, 

 and which in the Greek language signified " de- 

 light;" and many another, with old names so 

 expressive, and so pretty withal, that we are re- 

 minded of the words said to be spoken by Mary 

 Powell, before she married John Milton, that 

 " Adam might have named the animals, but that 

 Eve surely named the flowers." 



Notwithstanding considerable variety in the 

 aspect of different parts of our coast, yet every 

 one must have remarked the general barrenness 

 of vegetation in the immediate vicinity of the sea. 

 Such trees as are planted near the shore, have 

 usually a stunted appearance, and have their upper 

 boughs bent down by the strong winds which 

 blow over them. The sycamore is the only tree 

 which can be said to flourish close to the sea as 

 well as on inland spots, and to lift as bold a front 

 and as full a canopy to the sea breeze, as to the 

 wind of the sheltered valley ; and the tamarisk 

 and the tree mallow are almost the only shrubs 

 which seem to prefer the saline soil for their 

 growth. The presence of a large quantity of salt 

 in the soil, has, from the earliest ages of the 

 world, been known to produce sterility ; and not 

 only do the early Greek and Roman writers name 

 the practice of sowing a field with salt when they 

 condemned it to barrenness, but we have an 

 instance of this named in the Scriptures, when 

 Abimelech in his fury beat down the city of 

 Shechem, and sowed its site with salt, that never- 

 more the earth should yield her produce to gladden 

 the heart of man. The Psalmist, speaking of 



