Just as in walking along the shore we have on one hand a region inhabited by specialised races of animal and plant-life altogether different from those of the land, so also on the landward side we have flowering plants distinct in most cases from those found but a short distance inland. Strictly speaking, the stretch of shore, whether it be shingle, sand, or rocks, does not form a barrier separating sea plants from those of the land, for the terrestrial and the submarine overlap through the medium of the frondose lichen, Lichina pygmæa, which, belonging to a terrestrial group, spends half its day in the water and the other half exposed to the atmosphere. The pretty Sea-Milkwort (Glaux maritima) takes up the connecting thread on the land side, and establishes its roots and woody base jammed in the crevices of rocks, where they must absorb more salt water than fresh, and at times it must be entirely covered by the sea. That this salt is thoroughly congenial to its nature we may gather from the fact that the only inland localities where Glaux grows are the salt-producing districts. It attains to only a few inches in height, and its small, smooth, stalkless, glaucous leaves are thickened like many other shore plants, and dotted all over with minute pits. The flowers are devoid of petals, but the bell-shaped calyx is coloured of a flesh-tint, and sprinkled with very small dots of crimson. Its flowering period is from May to August.

In similar situations grows the beautiful little Sandwort Spurrey (Spergularia rubra), with many slender compressed, ruddy stems radiating from a woody rootstock; the leaves slender, awl-shaped, unequal in size. Petals fine, bright rosy; anthers yellow. Flowers June to September.

Like conditions of life often produce similar effects on different organisms. Growing close to the Sea-Milkwort, just above high-water mark, and continuing thence some distance up the cliffs, is the Samphire (Crithmum maritimum), with similar woody rootstock similarly wedged in rock-crevices, and with all its parts thickened. The glaucous leaves are cut up into cylindrical fleshy segments, and the yellow flowers are borne in clusters, the fleshy stalks of the individual blossoms radiating from a common centre like the ribs of an umbrella. It may be unnecessary to explain that this type of flower-cluster is characteristic of the Natural Order Umbelliferæ, to which the Samphire belongs, and that it is to the same order that such well-known plants as carrot, hogweed, fool’s-parsley, and celery belong. Samphire is much sought for pickling, and this has led to its extermination on many parts of the coast. It flowers from June to September.

Fennel (Fœniculum officinale) is another seaside umbellifer, and its tall, straight, and polished stems may be found growing up the face of the cliffs, the much-divided feathery leaves producing a green cloud-like effect. The same glaucous tint characterises the whole plant, except that the flowers are yellow. July and August are the months in which it may be found in blossom.

One other umbelliferous plant that is strictly confined to the shore is the so-called Sea-Holly (Eryngium maritimum), though this must be sought not on the rocky cliffs, but on sandy shores. Its dense heads of pale-bluish flowers without a stalk nestle close to the broad and spiny-edged glaucous leaves (glaucous again), that bear a wonderful primâ facie resemblance to those of the unrelated holly-tree. It flowers in July and August, but the plant is easily recognised out of its flowering season by means of the bold leaves.

But the glory of cliff vegetation to my mind is the beautiful Thrift or Sea-Pink (Armeria maritima), whose tufts of thick, narrow, grass-like leaves extend from the wave-washed rocks right up the cliff-side, and over the stony hedges at the top. It flowers sparingly all the year round—I have gathered it within a few days of Christmas—but the brilliant display is in April and May, when every clump supports many long-stalked, half-round heads of the rosy flowers, that make so beautiful a setting for the nests of the cliff-building birds. Thrift is not absolutely peculiar to the coast, for it is found also on high mountains; in the Scottish Highlands it occurs at an altitude of nearly four thousand feet above the sea. There is a larger and more rigid species (A. plantaginea) that grows on sandy banks in Jersey.

A relation of the Sea-Pink is the Sea-Lavender (Statice limonium), which grows where sand and mud are more abundant than rocks, and in some places covers the sand-hills with a growth not unlike that of the heather on inland sand-hills, and at a distance the purplish flowers are very suggestive of heather in such a situation. They are not gathered into a compact head as in Thrift, but are scattered along a branching spray. It has a creeping rootstock of a woody character, from which all the leaves spring directly. These are oval in general outline, running off to a point at the upper end. It flowers from July to November.

On the sandy shore where grows the Sea-Lavender there will, in all probability, also be seen a bold-leaved plant, with large, golden yellow flowers, which the tyro in botany will notice at a glance has some sort of relationship with the familiar Eschscholtzia of the garden. It is the Yellow Horned Poppy (Glaucium luteum), and the above-mentioned tyro will say that this time the glaucous hue of the leaves (from which this species and Glaux both derive their scientific names) is not wholly due to its seaside habit, for the same hue is characteristic of Eschscholtzia and the Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum), which are cultivated flowers. Quite so, but probably their original home may be near the sea, though the texture of their leaves is not so fleshy as in our maritime plants of glaucous hue. The bold, rough leaves make the plant conspicuous even in winter. The name of Horned Poppy is suggested by the form of the seed vessel, which is similar to that of Eschscholtzia, but thicker. It is a prominent feature of the flower—which loses its petals after one day’s blossoming—but they ultimately extend to a foot in length. The flowers may be found from June till October.

Saltwort (Salsola kali) is also a plant of the sandy shore, with rigid brittle stems, striped and bristly, and fleshy, glaucous leaves, nearly cylindrical in shape, with spiny points. At their base the leaves become broader and partially clasp the stem. The little flowers are leafless, borne in the axils of the leaves, and to be seen only in July and August. This is one of several plants that were formerly burned to make Barilla, an impure carbonate of soda, much used in the manufacture of soap and glass, before the discovery of the cheap production of soda from common salt.

If my friend the reader is acquainted with the beautiful white-flowered Bladder Campion (Silene cucubalus), of inland hedgebanks, and he should chance to come upon the nearly allied Sea-Campion (S. maritima), he will think he has the old familiar plant, so closely are the two related; but a comparison will convince him there are differences. For instance, the stems of maritima are shorter and less erect than those of cucubalus. The flower-cluster (panicle) is in cucubalus many-flowered; in maritima the flowers vary only between one and four in a cluster, and their petals are not so deeply cleft. The two scales that are obvious at the base of the broad part of the petal in maritima, are very obscure in cucubalus. Maritima, too, has smaller leaves and larger flowers, and the scales (bracts) below the flowers, which are dry and semi-transparent in cucubalus, are here more fleshy. It flowers from June to September.

Everybody is well acquainted with the pretty Field Convolvulus, or Small Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), and as they have just seen it growing in abundance in the fields they passed through on the way to the shore, they may reasonably conclude that these larger, more richly-tinted blossoms that grow on the sandy shore, are simply more luxuriant examples of the same species. In reality they are produced by a distinct kind, the Sea-Convolvulus (C. soldanella), which differs from the common kind in the fact that clasping the base of the flower and covering the sepals, there are two large leaf-like bracts, whereas in arvensis these are small and placed at some distance below the sepals. The leaves are fleshy, broader than long, the stems are shorter, seldom more than a foot in length, and very rarely do they twine around anything. The flowers, as we have said, are larger and more richly coloured, only one on a stalk, whilst the common sort have usually from two to four.

The Sea-Rocket (Cakile maritima) is abundant on most sandy shores. It is a large succulent plant, about two feet in height, with zigzag branches, and smooth, fleshy, glaucous leaves; flowers with four purplish white petals, arranged cross-wise. The flowers are succeeded by large succulent pods, that are divided into two by a cross-partition; each chamber contains a solitary seed. It is this pod that is most likely to arrest attention. It flowers in June and July.

Wall Pennywort, or Navelwort (Cotyledon umbilicus), is an abundant weed in the rocks and walls of the west coast, but travels no further east than to Kent. Its tuberous rootstock is wedged into the crevices of the rocks and cliffs, or between the flakes of which stone dykes are built. The leaf, as the name suggests, is round, with the stalk in the centre; it is also thick and fleshy, the severity of the margin taken off by a series of low, rounded teeth. Some of these leaves are large—as much as three inches across. When the flowering stalk makes its appearance, another type of leaf comes with it—spoon-shaped. The flower-stalks bear drooping cylindrical flowers, greenish-white in hue, densely crowded, and all hanging downwards. It is a very striking ornament of the places where it is common, especially from June to August, when it flowers.

In company with the Navelwort, on rocks and walls, will be found one, if not two, species of Stonecrop (Sedum). One of these, the common Yellow Stonecrop or Wall Pepper (Sedum acre), is too well-known to need describing. The other is the White Stonecrop (Sedum anglicum), of similar habit, but with the inevitable glaucous leaves (those of S. acre are not glaucous, but bright green); though sometimes these take on a reddish hue. The flowers are more star-like than those of S. acre, and of a whitish or pinkish colour—in evidence from May to August.

I do not pretend to furnish an exhaustive list of the plants of the sea-shore: that properly treated would make a volume by itself. Such as I have mentioned belong almost solely to a habitat where they can receive the salt spray upon their leaves. Mention should also be made of the Sea-Spleenwort (Asplenium marinum), among ferns, that loves to grow over the entrance to a sea-cave, there hanging down its boldly-cut and well-varnished dark green fronds, well out of reach. Then there is a distinctly marine Carex, the Sea-Sedge (Carex arenaria), which shares with Marram-grass (Ammophila arenaria), the work of binding the sands together with its thick, creeping rootstock.

But the seaside visitor, with botanical tastes, will find the shores abundant in vegetation generally, and he must have recourse to a special handbook to help in their discrimination.

Were it not for fear of laying himself open to a charge of presumption, egoism, favouritism, and a few other isms, the author would, in this connection, recommend his own “Wayside and Woodland Blossoms,” Second Series,[7] which includes many of the maritime flowers.