526 MR. F. LONG ON THE SALT-MARSH FLORA OF WELLS. 
for instance, Statice limonium, although this grows all over 
the marsh it is only on the parts that are less often covered by 
the tide and even where the tide never reaches to such as the 
higher slopes and tops of banks, that you find the largest 
plants, and the var. pyramidalis. In a correspondence I had 
with Mr. C. E. Salmon of Reigate, on the Statices, he was 
somewhat surprised when I said that the larger forms of 
S. limonium, and var. Pyramidalis grew on rather drier parts, 
and quoted from Syme, E. B., “ I have observed that when 
the Salt-marsh was drier than usual, the panicle had a tendency 
to revert to the common form.” Of course I can’t dispute 
Syme’s observations, but on such an extensive area of Salt- 
marsh as at Wells, where there is no variation in the condition, 
there is no difficulty in seeing where the larger plants grow. 
They like their roots in the salt mud, but they do not care 
for repeated bathing of tidal water. So with Statice reticulata 
of which the finest plants, those of 12 to 20 in. diameter? 
grow on rolling sand covered knolls two or three feet above 
the highest spring tide. S. auriculcefolia always grows on 
dry sandy mud above high-water mark, and if some plants 
grow at a lower level and get washed by the tide, they are only 
three or four inches high. Taking the marsh altogether, it 
had been for many years a puzzle to me as to what was the 
cause of the great difference in the size and height of the 
plants of Statice limonium — that the plants should vary as 
much as from 2 to 18 in. In' many places you will come across 
plants not more than two to four in. in height. I sent some 
of these to Mr. Salmon, who was much interested in them as 
he had never seen any less than four inches. From what 
I have noticed of late, I think it is simply a question of the 
amount of salt they get, and that the height of the plants 
varies inversely as this condition obtains. I can trace no 
other cause for it. 
Some years ago I first noticed a grass growing on the marsh 
which I thought was Festuca duriuscula, although it seemed 
strange to find this grass in the same situations, and mixed 
with it, as Glyceria maritima. I sent it to Mr. Geldart and 
to Mr. Arthur Bennett, who sent some of it to Prof. Hackel, 
