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SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 63 



greenish, or yellow; now and then tinged with 

 pink. It is generally considered that plants of 

 this tribe which grow in ditches and damp places 

 are poisonous, and indeed in some of the sorts 

 usually deemed wholesome, the damp soil seems 

 to have a pernicious effect and to render them 

 dangerous. Dr. Walker remarks of our maritime 

 kinds " Though I would not propose it as a rule 

 to be depended on in so dangerous a case as poisons, 

 yet I think it highly probable that all the maritime 

 plants of this class are salutary and excellent. 

 This I am certain of, that none of the umbelliferous 

 plants known to be poisonous are stationed near 

 the sea-shore; all the maritime plants whose 

 qualities are known are innocent ; and it is further 

 remarkable that this is not to be ascribed to their 

 dry situation among the maritime rocks, or upon 

 the sandy beach ; for the Celery and Sulphur-wort 

 grow in the salt marshes in as watery a soil as any 

 of the umbelliferous aquatics that are poisonous ; 

 but here I imagine lies an essential difference 

 between plants that inhabit salt water and fresh." 

 Although this remark may, as Balfour observes, 

 be a little too general, there is doubtless much of 

 truth in Dr. Walker's statements on this point ; 

 and most important investigations are now making 

 on vegetable poisons, by means of which they will 

 probably be in a few years better understood. 



Any one who has ever visited Dovor in the 

 month of May may have noticed how completely 

 some of the white cliffs at the eastern end of the 

 town seem covered with the yellowish green 

 clusters of a large and conspicuous umbelliferous 

 plant. This plant is not peculiar to the sea-side, 

 for it grows sometimes on inland spots, but it is 



