2 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



The glorious ocean ! Can we wonder that lin- 

 gering groups gather daily close by its boundaries, 

 gazing hour after hour upon the silver waves? 

 Call them not idlers. They may have come from 

 scenes of busy toil for needful repose ; and while 

 listening to sweet sounds, and looking on lovely 

 objects, they are getting treasures of memory for 

 other days, and store of health and strength for 

 future duty. 



What thoughtful person ever listened to the 

 ocean's murmurs without thinking aver what a 

 mass of contents its waters roll : 



" Bones of dead men, that made 

 A hidden Golgotha where they had fall'n, 

 Unseen, unsepulchred, but not unwept 

 By lover, friend, relation far away, 

 Long waiting their return to home and country, 

 And going down into their fathers' graves, 

 With their grey hairs or youthful locks, in sorrow, 

 To meet no more till seas give up their dead ; 

 Some, too, ay, thousands, whom no living moum'd, 

 None miss'd, waifs in the universe, the last 

 Lorn links of kindred chains for ever sunder'd." 



We have often thought, on looking on the mul- 

 titudes of invalids who with their companions 

 crowd our shores in summer, that they would 

 possess a great advantage if they had some out- 

 door pursuit with which to beguile the time. Dr. 

 Cullen used to say, that he had cured weak 

 stomachs by engaging his patients in the study of 

 botany, and particularly in the investigation of 

 wild plants ; and many a head-ache, and a heart- 

 ache too, would be relieved if its owner could be 

 brought to feel an interest in the shells or sea- 

 weeds which are strewed on the beach, or in the 

 sweet wild blossom which smiles on the side of 



