48 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



rains and dews than on the substances sucked up 

 by roots from soils. Several of the Sedums, among 

 them the common yellow stonecrop of our walls, 

 were formerly used as a medicine, and another 

 was one of the plants much used in London for 

 the burning of bonfires on St. John's Eve. This 

 was the Orpine, or Live-long (Sedum TelepTiium). 

 These plants were, some centuries since, com- 

 monly called Midsummer men ; and an old herbal 

 records of the Orpine, " The people of the country 

 delight much to set it in pots and shelles on Mid- 

 summer Even, or upon timber, slates, or trenchers 

 daubed with clay, and so to set or hang it up in 

 their houses, where it remaineth greene a long 

 season, and groweth, if it be sometimes over 

 sprinkled with water." 



There is a plant found on our sea-side cliffs, but 

 which is more abundant on the high mountains at 

 the north of England and Ireland, as well as the 

 north-west of Scotland, where it is very common. 

 This is the rose root (Rhodiola rosed). To such of 

 our readers as know the Orpine, we may say that 

 this plant very much resembles it in its appear- 

 ance. The blossoms are yellow, and grow in small 

 compact clusters. The leaves are crowded about 

 the stem, and are of a broad oblong shape, and 

 notched at the edges ; in some specimens they are 

 much tinged with red, and they are very juicy. 

 The root is large and woody, and when dried in 

 the sun, it yields an odour which is scarcely in- 

 ferior to that of the blossom of the rose. It is a 

 small plant, seldom exceeding ten inches in height, 

 and without branches. 



One species of our wild docks grows especially 

 on salt marshes, near the sea. The Golden Dock 



