40 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



a gaseous exhalation of azote, by vegetables ; and 

 the facility with which this principle is abandoned 

 by ammonia, may perhaps explain the presence of 

 azotic products in the vegetable kingdom." 



Of all our sea-side plants, boiled for table vege- 

 tables, the one which seems to the writer of these 

 pages most to deserve commendation for the pur- 

 pose, is the sea-beet (Beta maritima). Unlike 

 the silvery glaucous foliage of the orache and 

 goosefoot, the leaves of this plant are of a deep 

 rich green colour, very succulent and wavy at the 

 edges. The stems are angular, grow down near 

 the ground, and are one or two feet long, and the 

 flowers are green, and appear in August. When 

 properly boiled, it has the appearance and full 

 flavour of the cultivated spinach ; indeed, it is 

 rather superior to that plant, but if not gathered 

 while young, the vegetable becomes too strongly 

 bitter. It is not general around our coasts, but 

 in some places in England it is very abundant, 

 and it grows also on the southern shores of Scot- 

 land. At Dovor it is plentiful, not only on the 

 cliffs, but on the upper part of the beach, where a 

 grassy spot may sometimes be seen on which the 

 bright blue viper's bugloss rises above its prickly 

 stems, and no less prickly leaves; and the lilac 

 mallow, and the yellow dandelion and hawkweed, 

 unite with clumps of orache and sea-beet to 

 make a green and gay patch on the stones. On 

 some parts of the coast it is gathered from the 

 cliff or the muddy shore for food, yet it is often 

 left unnoticed. The English proverb, which our 

 old writer, Fuller, so often quotes, " Fetched far, 

 and cost dear, is fit for ladies," applies, seemingly, 

 as well to the other portion of humanity as to the 



