68 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



that season almost the only bright things which 

 invite the passing bee to taste their sweets. This 

 flower is found not only near the sea, but on the 

 shores of some salt rivers, as the Medway in Kent, 

 and is so far from being a rare plant, that one 

 would think most British botanists might, at some 

 time or other, examine it for themselves. Yet the 

 old writers told strange things of it, and one 

 excellent old herbalist, Gerarde, says " It is 

 reported by men of great fame and learning, that 

 this plant was termed tripolium because it doth 

 change the colour of his floures thrice a day. 

 This herbe I planted in my garden, whither, in 

 his season, I did repair to find out the truth 

 hereof, but I could not espie any such variableness 

 herein ; yet, this much I must say, that as the heat 

 of the sunne does change the colour of divers 

 floures, so it fell out with this, which in the 

 morning was very fair, but afterwards of a pale 

 and wan colour, which proved that to be a fable 

 which Dioscorides says is reported by some, that in 

 one day it changeth the colour of his floures 

 thrice ; that is to say, in the morning it is white, 

 at noon purple, and in the evening crimson." Even 

 the admission of Gerarde, however, as to its changes 

 by the heat of the sun, had more in it of fancy 

 than of fact ; and for aught that the writer of these 

 pages could ever see in the flower, it has the same 

 pale lilac tint from " opening morn till dewy eve." 

 Our herbalist says that women by the sea-side call 

 it blue daisies and blue camomiles. 



Another pretty flower of the sea-shore is the 

 Great Sea-stock (Mathiola sinuata\ which flowers 

 from May to September upon some sandy shores 

 of Cornwall, and also on the Welsh coast, but 



