INTRODUCTION. XXIX 



a dense gro-wth. oi Atriplex patula, var. 0. {A.prostmta, Bouch.? 

 Bab. Man. ?), Halimus portulacoides, Crithmum maritimum, 

 Beta maritima, and Parietaria officinalis, this last in its most 

 truly natural station. Pieris hieracioides, here abundant, offers 

 itself a congenial recipient for the parasitic attachment to its 

 roots of Orobancke minor. 



Passing Freshwater Bay, and nearing that of Compton, the 

 same chalk-cliffs, continued eastward after their interruption at 

 the former, present us with the excessively rare and charmingly 

 fragrant Sea Stock (Matthiola incana), which grows abundantly 

 and indubitably native on their most exposed pinnacle, and, 

 springing from their bare and even perpendicular face, defies 

 the storms of winter and the grasp of all who covet its spicy 

 and richly coloured blossoms, save that of the bold and daunt- 

 less cliffsman, whose services a trifling remuneration will at any 

 time secure to weaker heads and less adventurous limbs, in 

 plucking this floral prize from its perilous and dizzy domicile. 

 Though most attached to the chalk, the Matthiola passes the 

 point of junction of that formation with the greensand, gradu- 

 ally diminishing in frequency as the wealden is approached, on 

 or near which it soon terminates, to reappear, for the last time, 

 at Steephill, a distance of at least twelve miles from its western 

 station. 



Proceeding still South-east, the sandy cliffs are of too loose 

 and crumbling a nature to afford even a transient footing to 

 vegetation of any kind, * and the banks of debris at their base, 

 where they exist, afford few or no plants of interest. Erodiwni 

 maritimum grows at the entrance of Brook Chine, and Plantago 

 Coronopus occurs in unusual jjlenty and luxuriance along the 

 top of the cliff from Compton Bay to Blackgang, where, just 

 before arriving at the Chine, Eriophorum vaginatum has been 



* The deep fissures which run parallel with, and behind the edges of, these 

 cliffs, attest their constant destruction and recession inland, and by planting 

 the feet against them a slight effort will hurl down masses of many hundred 

 weight, already tottering to their fall, upon the beach beneath. The 

 footway along the fields from Sandown to Shankliii, as I remember it ten or 

 twelve years ago, has quite disappeared, the cliff having retrograded in that 

 time more than as many feet, I might even say yards ; and the existing path 

 must soon cease, if it has not already done so, to direct the steps with safety 

 along the verge of this treacherous precipice after nightfall. 



