SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 3 



the cKff. But the time spent at the sea-side is 

 not usually the time for study. Rest of mind is 

 often absolutely necessary for health ; and even 

 where this is not the case, yet the many hours 

 spent in the open air, while invigorating to the 

 frame, render us indisposed to any continued 

 mental exertion. It is those already in some 

 degree acquainted with natural history who can 

 now enjoy its results. There are few, however, 

 who, while for a period they are residents on our 

 coasts, would not Ibe glad to know some of its 

 familiar objects, if tire knowledge could be ob- 

 tained without study ; and it is for the unlearned 

 in these matters that these pages are written. 



It will be necessary to confine our remarks on 

 the plants of our shores to such as grow only by 

 the sea-side, or to such as grow more frequently 

 there than elsewhere. The flowers which cluster 

 in some of the meadows at a little distance, and 

 many which spring up on the cliffs, thrive equally 

 well on inland soils of the same nature. The rich 

 clumps of the wild rock rose (Helianthemum 

 vulgare) are as bright on the chalky cliff which 

 skirts the green lane, as on those that lie about 

 the sea; and, find them where we may, have so 

 bright . a golden tint, that we remember how 

 Pliny told of them, that the kings and wise men 

 of Persia anointed themselves with them, to make 

 them fair and beautiful, and called them the 

 " beauties of the sun." Then there is the wild 

 thyme ( Thymus serpyllum), sending its sweetness 

 from among the short grass on the eliff, or on 

 the air of the heathland; and the pale chocolate 

 blossoms of the wild marjoram ( Origanum vulgare), 

 which the Greeks termed the " joy of the moun- 



B 2 



