SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



" For there, by sea-dews nursed and airs marine, 

 The Chelidonium blows in glaucous green ; 

 Each refluent tide the thorn'd Eryngium laves, 

 And its pale leaves seem tinctured by the waves ; 

 And half-way up the cliff, whose rugged brow 

 Hangs o'er the ever-toiling surge below, 

 Springs the light Tamarisk ; the summit bare 

 Is tufted by the Statice ; and there, 

 Crush'd by the fisher, as he stands to mark 

 Some distant signal or approaching bark, 

 The Saltwort's starry stalks are tliickly sown, 

 Like humble worth, unheeded and unknown." 



IT is delightful on some fine summer's morning 

 to wake up to the loud continuous sounds of the 

 waves, and to stray along the shore, with eye and 

 heart alive to the natural beauty of this world. 

 When the calm airs seem, as the poet describes 

 them, 



" Like Music slumbering on its instrument,*' 



they are to the listener both sweet and soothing, 

 and serve we know not how nor why to awaken 

 memories of the past, and so to identify themselves 

 with our own being, that scenes far away, and 

 long absent friends, gradually mingle in the day- 

 dreams begotten by their tones. 



