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The Botany of the Chesil Bank, Portland. 
By W. B. Barrett, Esq. 
Tue Chesil Bank, which connects the Peninsula of Portland, in the 
_ county of Dorset, with the mainland, has long been considered as one 
of the most extraordinary ridges or shelves of pebbles in Europe, and 
is perhaps the longest, except that of Memel, in East Prussia. It ex- 
tends from Abbotsbury to Portland, a distance of ten miles and three- 
quarters, and its direction is S.E. and N.W. The bank commences 
at Abbotsbury, and in about half a mile meets the Fleet Water, a nar- 
row arm of the sea, varying from a quarter to half a mile in width, 
and running between the Chesil Bank and the mainland, until it 
communicates with the sea just below the Portland Ferry Bridge. 
The average width of the bank at low water is 170 yards at Abbots- 
bury, and 200 yards at Portland. The pebbles, which are generally 
known by the name of Portland pebbles, consist chiefly of flints from 
the chalk. They are so loose that horses sink almost knee-deep at 
every step, and walking on them soon becomes sufficiently laborious 
to require a considerable degree of enthusiasm for the careful exami- 
nation of the products of this pebbly bank. 
Much interest has of late been created respecting the formation 
and nature of the Chesil Bank, in consequence of a very excellent 
paper by John Coode, Esq., the resident engineer of the Portland 
Breakwater, which was read at a meeting of the Society of Civil En- 
gineers a short time since. It may possibly not prove uninteresting to — 
give some account of the principal plants which are found on this beach. 
We propose to start from the south-eastern part of the beach, that 
part which adjoins the Peninsula, or, as it is more commonly called, 
the Island of Portland ; and we shall beg the reader to accompany us, 
on a fine morning in the middle of August, along the beach to its junc- 
tion with the mainland at Abbotsbury, a somewhat fatiguing ramble, 
it is true, but one which will be well repaid by the many objects of 
botanical interest that will come under our notice. We shall confine 
ourselves almost entirely to the eastern side of the bank, which for 
some distance skirts the Fleet Water, it being by far the firmest and 
easiest for walking, in consequence of the pebbles being somewhat 
bound together by the marine plants growing in patches along the 
water-side, and by the Zostera thrown ashore by the sea; whilst the 
western side, being fully exposed to the heavy breakers which roll in 
from the Atlantic, is quite bare of vegetation, and very loose. Close 
VOL. V. 2F 
