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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



■plants do their utmost to make up, by their abun- 

 dance for the lack of others. Some notes on the 

 characteristics of the island's botany may not be 

 unwelcome, especially in view of the number of your 

 readers who annually visit our shores. 



Perhaps the most striking features of our plant-life 

 are to be seen on the sea-coast. This consists of 

 rugged cliffs for the greater part of its circuit, and 

 these, especially on the bold and picturesque western 

 side of the isle, often present a luxuriant vegetation. 

 On their dry tops, or on the earthen fences which 

 shut off the cliff-edge from the cultivated land, 

 Sedum anglicum, our only common stone-crop, opens 

 its myriads of starry spotted flowers. From the 

 broken ground spring the kidney-vetch (Anthyllis 

 ■vulncraria) and hare's-foot trefoil {Trefolium arvemc). 

 Where the rock splits into ledges, and water drips 

 through its crevices, Cochlcaria officinalis covers it 

 with a snowfall of blossom. The common companion 

 •of the scurvy-grass is the sea-feverfew (Matricaria 

 inodora, var. maritima), with its flowers so like dog- 

 daisies. On both rock and earth is the straggling 

 bushy growth aiSpergidaria marina. Great cushions 

 of sea-pink (Armeria maritima), crowned with their 

 many rosy clusters, sprout from the cracks, mingled 

 with the pale-green foliage and reticulated calyces of 

 the sea-campion (Silenc maritima). Beds of samphire, 

 recognised far off by its strange glaucous hue, cover 

 here and there long ledges, usually out of reach. 

 But the loveliest sea-plant of all is the vernal squill 

 (Scilla verna) abundant on all our rocky coasts, and 

 sometimes, as at Cronk Moar in Rushen, straying a 

 little inland. Often ;the grassy sea-margins are ^so 

 profusely sprinkled with these faintly-scented dwarf 

 "hyacinths, that they give the prevailing colouring to 

 the brows. On the west, steep and stony ground 

 is sometimes covered by a huge and rank growth of 

 the common nettle. Below, where boulders and 

 fragments fallen from above form a rough kind of 

 beach, overhung by the great rock-masses, vegetation is 

 scarcer. Bits of sea-spurrey still grow wherever they 

 can find a rooting-place. The stones are thinly sown 

 with the straggling mealy stems of a slender and not 

 ungraceful form of atriplex ( ? dcltoidea). Sometimes 

 there is a little yellow stonecrop (Sedum acre). 

 Sometimes the pretty foliage of the sea-milkwort 

 (Glaux maritima) turning a beautiful yellow in 

 autumn, carpets the ground between the boulders, 

 and in some stony spots, which it has nearly 

 •completely to itself, the common silverweed (Potentilla 

 ■anserina) has a singularly delicate appearance. A 

 plant very common, on these strands, or, as they are 

 called in the Isle of Man, " Traics," where a stream 

 trickles from the rock, is the tall, rough hemp- 

 agrimony (Eupaiorium canuabinum), its dull flower- 

 heads and abundant foliage not unpicturesque amid 

 its surroundings. Trace up the water a little further, 

 if the ascent be not too steep, and you will find 

 brookweed (Samolus valerandi), and perhaps, for it is 



not very frequent in Man, a few of hart's-tongue fern 

 (Scolopendrum vulgare), or the high stem and golden 

 lamp-like flowers of the tutsan (Hypericum andro- 

 sccmum). But where the cliff is hollowed out into 

 a cavern, or a long recess slopes away into blackness, 

 you will see in profusion the rich glossy fronds of the 

 sea-spleenwort (Asplenium marinum). Sometimes a 

 mossy projection jutting from the darkness of a great 

 cave is completely draped with this fine fern. Great 

 tufts of it, somewhat ragged .and stunted from 

 exposure, and mixed with immense growths of sea- 

 spurrey, spring from the ruinous walls of Peil, "a 

 castle like a rock upon a rock." By careful search a 

 rarer fern may be found. The maiden-hair, though 

 sadly thinned, still lingers in some dripping cavernous 

 places, on the west coast. Asplenium adiantum- 

 nigrum is frequent on the coast also, more out of 

 reach of the tide than A. marinum. The sea-kale 

 grows in a few localities ; and among the debris of the 

 low rocks, on the south, the flaunting flowers of the 

 horned-poppy may be gathered, and even the hen- 

 bane, though that is uncommon in Man. Euphorbia 

 Portlandica is found on stony rubbish at a wild strand 

 on the east coast. The extreme north of the island 

 is a sandy and comparatively level district, with a 

 coast sometimes flat, but usually rising into cliffs of 

 sand and clay. This has its peculiar flora, but most 

 of the plants are those to be found on every similar 

 shore in Britain. The gay carpet of the sandy 

 pastures is [largely composed of bird's-foot lotus (L. 

 comiculatus), and rest-harrow (Ononis arvensis), the 

 form seeming to be always repens, sometimes with 

 the addition of Ornithopus perpusillus, and dotted with 

 the common pink stork's-bill (Erodium cicutarium). 

 On the sands sea-rocket (Cakile maritima) and salt- 

 wort (Salsola kali) are abundant, and on the shingle 

 above high-water mark, sea-purslane (Honckenya 

 peploides). Eryngium maritimum adds to the prevail- 

 ing blue-green of the great masses of sea-reed. The 

 field-borders are brighbwith the common vetch ( Vicia 

 angustifolia. The rare Brassica monensis, which 

 seems to have been named by John Hay from 

 specimens gathered on the " Mooragh," at Ramsey, 

 is still found there and at other spots ; and in the 

 neighbouring salt-flats tidally overflowed, the glass- 

 wort (Salicornia herbacea) flourishes in the bare, 

 muddy spaces between tufts of sea-pink. 



The deep glens which seam the mountain-land so 

 prolusely have a rich vegetation, often in strong con- 

 trast with the bareness of the hill-masses among 

 which they are hidden ; but here, too, few prizes will 

 be found. On very damp stony places, under the 

 deep shade of rock and wood, are great clusters of 

 yellow-green Chrysosplenium (oppositifolium), and 

 wood-anemones thickly star the stream-sides along 

 the branches of the Glass and Groudle brooks, and in 

 some of the northern glens, and complete the spring 

 charm of hyacinth, primrose, and dog-violet. Wood- 

 sorrel is wonderfully abundant, and golden-rod 



