SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 61 



clothes, will not let him escape without many a 

 rent, and the inhabitants of the country call the 

 plant Waht en beetje " Wait a bit." Then there is 

 the linear-leaved Asparagus of Ceylon, with shoots 

 five or six feet in height, thickly beset with spines, 

 and the roots of which afford food to the Cingalese ; 

 and another species, a native of Spain, with thorns 

 as large as a finger, which will not let you touch it 

 without tearing you. Well might the genus receive 

 the name of Asparagus, from a Greek word to lace- 

 rate, for few except our native species are unarmed. 

 On our salt marshes we may gather from May 

 till the end of summer, the sea-side Arrow-grass 

 (Triglochin maritimum), which is a common but not 

 a conspicuous plant, and not much unlike, at first 

 appearance, one of the plantains. It has a stout 

 stem, long narrow leaves, and small greenish 

 flowers ; it has a salt flavour, and cattle, especially 

 cows, are very fond of it. 



On the rocky coasts of the North of England, 

 and very abundantly on the shores of Scotland, the 

 Scottish Lovage (Ligusticum Scoticum) rears its 

 head and grows to a large plant, fearless of winds 

 and tide. It has broad, smooth, dark green leaves, 

 and a cluster of small white flowers with a reddish 

 tinge, which appear in July. When bruised, the 

 foliage of this plant emits a powerful odour re- 

 sembling that of parsley. In the Isle of Skye the 

 Lovage is eaten in its natural state, and called 

 Shunis, and it is also thus eaten in several of the 

 northern isles of Scotland as well as boiled for 



Seens. Ray mentions of it, that in his time the 

 ighlanders gathered and ate it early in the 

 morning before they touched any other food, to 

 preserve them through the day from infection; 



