CLIFF VEGETATION 



It belongs to the Umbelliferse, and has umbels of greenish-yellow 

 flowers. In many places the plant is not as abundant as it would 

 naturally be, for at one time it was very much used as a condi- 

 ment, owing to its aromatic properties. In some places the 

 Golden Samphire is found in the neighbourhood of the Sea Sam- 

 phire, but this is a very much rarer plant, only resembling its 

 namesake in scent and taste. The Sea Samphire used to be found, 

 it is said, as far north as the islands of the Firth of Forth, but it 

 seems now to be quite extinct. The Sea Beet belongs to the 

 Goosefoot tribe, the Cheno- 

 podiaceae, an order which is 

 characteristic of seashore 

 vegetation, and comprises 

 plants with fleshy leaves and 

 small greenish flowers. The 

 Sea Pink (Armeria vulgaris) 

 is of all cliff plants the best 

 known, with its cushion of 

 green leaves and heads of 

 pink flowers. It is alpine in 

 its mode of growth, and is 

 found on high mountains, 

 another instance of the simi- 

 larity existing between the 

 vegetation of high hills and 

 seashores. The Sea Campion 

 is very like the Bladder Cam- 

 pion, which belongs to inland 

 situations. Both have white flowers and a swollen bladder-like 

 calyx, but the Sea Campion is of lower growth and the stems are 

 more numerous and spreading ; the petals too are broader. There 

 are four species of Sea Lavender, the one belonging to cliffs is the 

 Statice auriculcefolia ; the other three frequent muddy seashores. 

 In this species the flowers are arranged in dense spikes, each bearing 

 two rows of spikelets with the flowers all turned one way. Each 

 spikelet contains two or three flowers enclosed by three bracts. The 

 calyx is green, the upper part white, contrasting with the deep 

 purple of the petals. There are five stamens and five long curling 



FIG. 6. Sea Samphire (Crithmum maritimuni). 



