THE SEA CAMPION— continued. 
Of our nine British species, two — the Bladder Campion ( Si/ene latifolia Britten 
and Rendle) and the Sea Campion ( S . amosna Hudson) — are so closely related that 
in all probability most of the physiological observations made in the case of the one 
will prove to be equally true in the case of the other. Were it not so common as 
to be treated with the contempt born of familiarity, our inland Bladder Campion 
would be recognised as, in several respects, a remarkable plant. The whole plant is 
fleshy and generally smooth, both stems and leaves being covered with that grey 
waxy bloom which is so much more frequent on sea-side plants. This bloom 
prevents rain-water from wetting the surface ; but the rain accumulates at the bases 
of the leaves and may be absorbed by them. An uncommon variety known as 
puberula , with short curly hairs, occurs in dry places and is represented in the south 
of Europe by a densely hairy form. The erect stem, branching unequally and 
bearing membranous bracts, terminates in numerous drooping flowers. The much 
inflated calyx is globular, narrowing at its mouth, and is distinctly lined with a 
network of purplish veins. The deeply-cloven white petals, sweet-scented at night, 
recall its allies the Stitchworts, while the ligules are hardly visible. Three forms of 
flower — perfect, staminate, and carpellate — occur, the perfect and staminate ones on 
one plant, perfect and carpellate ones on another. 
The Sea Campion is a more attractive plant. Deeply rooted by its tap-root in 
shingle, it spreads out leafy stems in a cushion from which rise the short and but 
little branched flowering stems. The bracts are leafy, and the almost solitary 
terminal flowers are larger than those of the Bladder Campion. The calyx is more 
inflated in its upper half and does not narrow at its mouth, and the petals are only 
shortly cleft and have distinct ligular scales. The violet-blue anthers are conspicuous 
in contrast with the dead-white of the petals. 
The extensive mats of this plant, with the darker green of the Sea Purslane 
{Arenaria peplo'ides Linne), among which rise many plants of a form of Dock ( Rumex 
crispus Linne), along with dense low thickets of Sea Blite (Su<eda fruttcosa Forskal), 
form the characteristic shingle-beach community of Blakeney Point, Norfolk, which 
has now fortunately been secured as a “Nature reserve.” Its fleshy glaucous foliage 
and matted growth are distinctively halophytic , i.e. maritime, adaptations ; and the 
occurrence of some at least of these characters in its inland ally makes us speculate, 
as in the cases of many other sun-loving xerophytes among the Caryophyllacea, as to 
whether their ancestry was not maritime. 
It is remarkable that the pretty Sea Campion has not received a tithe of the 
popular appellations of its inland congener ; in fact, the name Thimble, or Witches’ 
Thimble, in the North is almost its only truly popular name. 
