VEGETATION OF MUDDY SEASHORES 3 



The Sea Arrow Grass is a plant usually abundant in salt marshes, 

 and belonging to the same order as the Water Plantain, namely, to 

 the Alismaceae. The leaves are succulent, and come up from the 

 underground stem. The flower-stems have no leaves, but bear 

 spikes, from six to twelve inches high, of small yellowish-green 

 flowers. This Glyceria Plant association, as it may be called, 

 is shown in the foreground of the accompanying photograph ; 

 it is usually the second association to be formed on muddy sea- 

 shores. In the same photograph, another association is seen 

 occupying the topmost zone. The dominant 

 plant is a Rush (Juncus Gerardii), and 

 associated with that are the Sea Thrift 

 (Armeria maritima) and the Sea Milkwort 

 (Glaux maritima). The Mud Rush (Juncus 

 Gerardii) has brown shining bracts. It is 

 marked off from other species of Rush by 

 the leaves of the perianth being about equal 

 to that of the capsule. The Sea Milkwort 

 belongs to the Primulaceae, but differs from 

 the other genera of that order in having no 

 corolla. The calyx is petaloid and consists 

 of five pink sepals. It is a slender plant, 

 about six inches high, with small leaves. 

 Another plant often found in this belt is 

 the Scurvy Grass, one of the Cruciferae, 

 with small white flowers and succulent 

 leaves. This topmost zone of vegetation 



is washed only at very high tides, the Fia '- krt (Glaux 

 ground is therefore far drier. As the 

 salt marsh gets drier and able to support a more fixed vege- 

 tation, cattle, sheep, and horses may be turned in to graze on it, 

 and the land gradually becomes reclaimed. The " Levels " of 

 Somerset consist very largely of land of this character. The 

 effect of turning in cattle to graze is to produce considerable 

 change in the vegetation, some plants being kept down altogether. 

 It is interesting, as one walks over a salt marsh pasture, to picture 

 the stages that have followed each other : at one time, it may have 

 been a muddy belt with only patches of Glasswort on it ; then as 



