20 HOUTUTi.Tl KAL TOUR. 



plants ; and Chenopodium maritimum, Aster tripolium, 

 and Salicornia herbacea, accordingly presented themselves. 

 But some of those which are common at Ostend are rare 

 in England ; such as the loose panic grass, Panicum grits 

 galli, and upright spear-leaved orache, Atriplex ereeta : 

 And as we strolled along the ramparts and by the sides of 

 the ditches of this fortified town, we met with at least one 

 plant entirely unknown to the British Flora, Lepidium 

 Iberis or bushy pepperwoit *. We noticed patches of 

 houseleek or fount (Sempervivum tectorum) planted on 

 the roofs of the houses of the lower orders, as with us. 



Around Ostend there are no gardens nor villas ; indeed, 

 for several miles the country seems almost waste. This, 

 however, must generally be the case near fortified places, 

 where trees or garden-walls are always levelled on the first 

 alarm of a leaguer. We formed no high opinion of the in- 

 dustry of the humbler class of the inhabitants, from this 

 circumstance, that close by their houses v/ere numerous 

 spots of ground lying totally waste and neglected, which, 

 with a very little trouble, might afford excellent crops of 

 kitchen vegetables. Only in one or two places did we ob- 

 serve that they had planted some small beds of potatoes. 



Green Market 

 Aug. 11. — In the morning we visited the green market 

 (marche aux herbes.) There was nothing remarkably 

 fine ; nor, in a seaport town, was any thing extraordinary 

 to be expected. Many peasants, chiefly women, had come 

 in from the country, with asses bearing a pair of panniers, 

 loaded with kitchen-stuffs and small quantities of fruit. 



" This plant 'lor:, not .-ij.pc.'ir to be common in the Netherlands; for it is 

 not enumerated in Roiicd's Flora of that country. 



