Salt air and sandy soil attract their own flowers. Among them 

 are plants with stiff, unyielding foliage, of a stern and defying sort, 

 which venture so close to the ocean that they are watered with its 

 salt spray. Others, of a tenderer character, creep behind the protect- 

 ing dunes, nestling in hollows, craving shelter from the fierce gales. 

 Actual coast vegetation is sparse. There are no trees, and only a 

 few hardy shrubs. The shore is joined to the country by a skirting 

 fringe of pines, oaks, cedars, and locusts, beneath whose shade still 

 other species are content to dwell. 



The flowers grouped in this chapter may, some of them, like the 

 Canadian bur net, have crept inland ; but most are recognized as 

 belonging to the sea-shore. 



Some flowers that grow in salt marshes and pine barrens near 

 the coast are here included. 



