86 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



coast are, the one termed Sea Spurge (Euphorbia 

 paralia] and the Portland Spurge (Euphorbia port- 

 'landica}, but they are not common plants, and are 

 confined to a very limited portion of our island 

 shores. The former has been found at various 

 parts of the English sea-coast, and the latter on 

 the sandy sea-shores to the extreme south and 

 west of England, as well as on the Welsh shore, 

 on the Isle of Man, and a few other places. Sir 

 William Hooker remarks of this, that it is very 

 rare, if not unknown, on the Continent. 



Two of our native plantains are common near 

 the sea, the one on the salt marshes, the other on 

 the beach, growing down among patches of grass 

 or little loose mounds of sand, just beyond the 

 reach of the waves. The Sea-side Plantain (Plan- 

 tag 'o maritima] is very plentiful on saline pasture 

 lands and in the clefts of rocks, and indeed some- 

 times it grows on a sandy spot on the beach. It 

 is also found, like several other of our maritime 

 plants, on the summits of high mountains. Most 

 persons are familiar with the plantain whose brown 

 spike is gathered for birds, and which has the old 

 name of Way-bred ; and this is much like it, save 

 that it has not the broad leaves which our fore- 

 fathers used for binding over their wounds, but has 

 long narrow foliage. Few plants, however, vary 

 more than this, under different circumstances of soil 

 and situation. Sometimes the leaves are scarcely 

 an inch high, while in a soil where it seems more 

 thriving, they are often a foot long. 



The Buck's-horn Plantain (Plantago coronopus] 

 grows chiefly near the sea, and is often one of the 

 commonest plants on the beach. Its leaves are 



