58 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



very succulent. It has been found on the coast of 

 Ayr, with white flowers, and blossoms in June 

 and* July. It grows along the shores of different 

 countries, from Sweden and Lapland to Gibraltar, 

 and is also found on both sides of the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea. 



We have already noticed some of the culinary 

 vegetables which originated in the wild plants of 

 our shores. Indeed, some of our best esculents 

 have been derived from the sea-side ; and the wild 

 cabbage, and the wild kale, and the asparagus, all 

 have their native homes where ocean's roar is 

 heard, and where sea spray and salt soil water and 

 nourish them. The French writers term our Kale 

 (Orambe maritima) the chow marin cT Angleterre ; 

 and it appears to have been sent from England into 

 France before the middle of the sixteenth century. 

 It is a hardy perennial, and when fully grown, a 

 very beautiful plant, with its delicate sea-green 

 surface, powdered over with its whitish bloom, 

 and a tinge of purple here and there on its foliage, 

 and its white honey-scented flowers. It is very 

 common on some sandy and stony lands near the 

 sea ; and where it is abundant, it has been cus- 

 tomary, from time immemorial, for the people of 

 the neighbourhood to watch for the time when its 

 young leaf-stalks and shoots emerge from their 

 sandy beds, which is in the month of March or 

 April. They cut these off as they might do the 

 asparagus, and boil them for table; and the blanched 

 shoots of the cultivated plant are too well known 

 to require comment. In some countries on the 

 Continent, the large, purplish-green leaves have 

 been boiled as greens, yet they are not of a very 

 palatable description, unless eaten when very 



