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Ahis part of the beach. Among the sand and firmer pebbles we shall 
not fail to notice the sea-beet (Beta maritima), the origin of the 
sugar-yielding beet, which is very frequent. Geranium purpureum 
sheds its petals plentifully over the loose stones amongst which it 
grows, forming a striking contrast with Glaucium luteum and Silene 
maritima. <A few feet from the shore, om our right, are vast beds of 
the broad-leaved grasswrack (Zostera marina), which extend to Ab- 
botsbury. _ Just opposite the Coast Guard Station at Fleet we find a 
little plant not unfrequently met with in sandy places in some parts, 
but which is rare on this coast: it is the knotted pearlwort (Sagina 
nodosa). it occurs but sparingly, and may be easily overlooked. 
Dr. Pulteney, in his ‘Catalogue of the more rare Plants of Dorset- 
shire,’ p. 88, states that he had been informed that the marsh-mallow 
(Althea officinalis) grew “ about Portland, and by the Fleets of the 
Chesil Bank.’ Dr. Maton, in his ‘Observations on the Western 
Counties of England,’ writes, “ Lavatera arborea {tree mallow) will 
attract the notice of the botanist among the neighbouring eminences 
at Portland.” Ray, also, records this plant in Bishop Gibson’s edi- 
tion of ‘Camden’ as a native of Portland and of Chesil Bank; and 
Dr. Pulteney adds that in his time it continued to be found there, 
and had been from thence introduced into the gardens of the villages 
of the island and the neighbourheod. Neither of these plants, how- 
ever, have we been able to find; and we much question whether they 
have not now disappeared from this neighbourhood. 
Between Fleet and Langton, in sandy or muddy places overflowed 
at high water, we may notice most of the sali-marsh plants: there is 
the sea-starwort (Aster Tripolium), now in full bloom; and close by 
is the jointed glasswort (Salicornia herbucea), and here and there a 
sprinkling of the sea-milkwort (Glaux maritima), the rese-eoloured 
fiowers of which have now aimost disappeared. The sea arrow-grass 
Triglochin maritimum) grows in company with the sea-plantain 
(Plantago maritima), or with the sea sandwort-spurrey (Spergularia 
marina), where the soil is very wet. Further from the water's edge, 
and in a drier sandy soil, the biting stonecrop (Sedum acre) abounds; 
there, too, we find the kidney vetch (Anthyliis vulneraria) and seve- 
ral composite plants, such as half-starved specimens of the autumnal 
hawkbit (Apargia autumnalis) and the hairy Thrincia (Thrineta 
hirta), and where the clay appears the colt’s-foot (Tussilago Far- 
fara) is found. The prickly twig-rush (Cladium Mariscus) has also 
been found here. 
The most striking feature, however, of the Botany of this part of 
