54 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



tliemum polifolium}, which is a shrubby plant, and 

 so lovely a one that the botanist regrets that it is 

 not more general around our island shores. 



A genus of plants which were highly valued some 

 centuries since, for their antiscorbutic properties, 

 and to which has therefore been given the name of 

 Scurvy-grass, has several species, which grow com- 

 monly near the ocean, or on rocks which overhang 

 its snores, or on the marshes which share their 

 saline airs and soil. The common Scurvy-grass 

 ( Cochlearia officinalis) grows alike on rocks or muddy 

 sea-sides, on the margins of salt rivers, and on the tops 

 of elevated mountains ; and there is no doubt that 

 it has powerful and valuable medicinal properties. 

 Invalids often take its expressed juices; and in days 

 when salad herbs were rarer in this country, this 

 was cultivated for the purpose. It has thick succu- 

 lent leaves, and white flowers, of the cruciferous 

 form, and blossoms in May or June. It may be 

 found on almost all parts of the coast in abundance. 

 The French term this plant Cranson officinale, and 

 the Germans Loffelkraut. When fresh it has a 

 bitter and acrid flavour, which is lost in process of 

 drying. 



The Greenland Scurvy-grass ( Cochlearia green- 

 landica] is much like the last-named plant, but not 

 so frequent, though it blossoms in June and July on 

 some parts of our shores, and on the Highland 

 mountains. More general than this is the kind 

 called English Scurvy-grass, which, with the 

 Danish Scurvy-grass, grows plentifully on muddy 

 and rocky sea-shores. The Danish species is also 

 a native of Kamtschatka, and even more abundant 

 in the north of Europe than with us. Thick tuft3 

 of the juicy leaves of these scurvy-grasses are found 



