SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 47 



and succulent, and without leaf-stalks. Pretty 

 little pink flowers, freckled with red spots, may be 

 seen on it in June and July, growing singly be- 

 tween the leaves and stem. Loudon observes of 

 this little plant, that it is well adapted for pots 

 and rock-work, and that it will grow at a distance 

 from the sea, if the sand on which it must be 

 planted is kept well moistened. It rarely grows 

 wild inland, except on the shores of salt rivers. 



Far less frequent, but an equally pretty little 

 blossom, is the creeping pale -blue toad-flax (Lina- 

 ria repens], which grows on chalky banks and 

 rocks on some parts of the sea-side. The flowers 

 are shaped like those of the common yellow toad- 

 flax, but are blue and yellow. It blooms in July 

 and the two following months. 



Not unfrequently we may find, on rocky or 

 sandy places about our coast, some handsome tufts 

 of the white English stonecrop (Sedum Anglicum). 

 Both in Scotland and Ireland this plant is abun- 

 dant, not only on cliffs near the sea, but upon 

 inland rocks ; and there are some shores of Eng- 

 land on which it is one of the prettiest plants. Its 

 leaves are very succulent, and have somewhat of 

 the sea-green tint, and its flowers, which are at 

 first thickly clustered, but afterwards open into a 

 larger and more scattered bunch, are beautiful 

 white star-like blossoms, with purple anthers, and 

 a reddish mark on each petal besides being gene- 

 rally covered at the tips with rosy spots. Few 

 would pass it by without notice when, in July, it 

 opens its flowers to the sunshine. It is one of a 

 large class of plants, all natives of sandy or stony 

 soils, and all having the succulent foliage, and the 

 small roots of plants destined rather to thrive on 



