CHAPTER XIV 
SEASIDES AND STRAND PLANTS 
MANY peculiarities and conditions of plant life depend 
upon the way in which the world is worked, that is, upon 
certain laws which are universally true, yet quite ofa 
simple and obvious character. 
Winds carrying water from the sea will travel far 
inland, raining in a mild and benignant manner upon 
lowland valleys and plateaux, but expending the whole 
of their energy in furious deluges whenever any con- 
veniently situated mountain range forces them to rise 
into a cooler atmosphere. On these highlands, rain 
forests or peat mosses collect and retain the water, but 
allow it to escape only gradually. The mountain streams 
carry down peat, silurian and indeed every kind of 
geological particle, so that their silt, by the time most 
of it is spread out flat in the valley lands and holms, is 
of great fertilising value. But in the end, such rivers 
still full of sediment pass out to sea and become dis- 
turbed and mixed up with erratic shore currents and 
changing tides. 
When the fresh and salt water meet, especially when 
its motion is checked, as often happens, the silt falls as 
sediment. Itis in this way that are formed the great 
shifting banks of mud and of sand, which occupy miles 
of our estuaries and extend far out to sea. 
At low tide, though only but a small proportion are 
exposed, there are hundreds or thousands of acres of 
these gently curved banks, intersected by intricate and 
capricious channels, continually altered or newly formed 
by the river and tides. 
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