THE BERWICKSHIRE COAST 167 
This is a curious plant in many respects. It may be found one 
season at the east end of a bank of shingle, and some time after- 
wards at the west end, and again it may be intermediate. Once 
we had the good fortune to get it in a place where it had been 
collected by the great Ray, and where in the interval it was 
thought to be extinct. The sea may pile tons of shingle over it 
and we say it is lost, and then in a night the overloads are gone 
and the plant flourishes exceedingly. A branch of the plant is 
sometimes broken off, dries and shrivels up in the sunshine, the 
calyx meantime contracting over the fruit : then the wind blows 
it away over the bank, a shower of rain falls, the calyx relaxes, 
the fruit or nut falls out, and dropping into far from fruitful soil, 
but which is fit for the needs of the plant, germination takes 
place, and we have a new plant far, often very far, from the old 
one. Quite close to our last plant we find another relation, the 
bugloss, but it prefers the sand to the shingle, and does not seem 
to mind if it grows on the shore or inland, provided it gets a light 
soil. The bright blue flowers make it very attractive to look at, 
but the strong, rigid, and perhaps poisonous, hairs make it un- 
pleasant for some folks to handle. 
Presently we come on one of the handsomest of our grasses 
{Elymus avenarius) growing sometimes between four and five feet 
high, with its broad leaves and pale-coloured spike. On a bank 
we see one of the largest of our peaflowers, the wild liquorice, 
as it is called in some places, with its strange, infolded pod, and 
on the short thyme-covered turf we find the more common 
species {Astragalus hypoglottis), with its beautiful light purple 
flower-heads. Near at hand we also see the splendid flowers of 
the bloody cranes-bill {Geranium sanguineum), which from its 
mass of colour may often be seen at a great distance. On the 
same ground is growing the dwarf Scotch or Burnet rose, with 
its large creamy- white flowers with their crimson blush, “ love’s 
proper hue,” and the small compound leaves with frequently a 
tinge of purple copper on them. Later in the season the plant 
bears a round, almost black fruit, or hip, to use the old Saxon 
word. 
As the tide has now gone out, we go down to some of the 
rocky pools rich in fine seaweeds and other spoils of the ocean. 
Soon we see a bright-coloured ball moving from the shade of a 
large tangle. It is that most interesting animal, the common sea- 
urchin, with its plated armour and its offensive (?) spines. Some 
folks think that the spines help the creature to move forward, 
but we rather think that they are used to prevent retrogression. 
The long and delicate suckers are protruded until they are fixed 
on a rock or stone, and then by a sudden contraction they drag 
the body forwards, the front spines being raised and the back 
ones depressed so as to act as a prop, but the whole animal is so 
curious that one might well spend weeks of study on it instead 
of a passing glance. 
In places the small caves in the rocks are filled with stalactites 
