AUTUMN BOTANY AT CLACTON. 249
tani, Spartina stricta, Inula crithmoides, Lactuca saligna, L. virosa,
Rumex maritimus, R. limosus, Chenopodium glaucum, Onopordon
acanthium, Crataegus oxyacanthoidis, Quercus sessiliflora, etc.
In studying the shore vegetation, one notices that, where
the concrete sea wall protecting the low-lying land west of
Clacton ends, there commences, above high-tide limit, a line
of low sand hillocks—miniature dunes—formed by the growth
of the Marram Grass (Ammophila arenaria) and the Sea Couch
Grass (Agropyron junceum), which are accompanied on the
sea-ward side by Honckenya peploides. Other members of these
miniature dunes are Carex arenaria and Convolvulus soldanella.
Where the hillocks are less marked, a strand association con-
sisting of Sea Rocket (Cakile), both white and. lilac flowered,
Atriplex laciniata and Agropyron junceum, occurs. Further
on, the strand-association is reduced to Agropyron junceum,
which also dominates the adjoining sandy ground, accom-
panied by Marram Grass and Sea Purslane (Honckenya). Here
and there the reed (Phragmites) is a member of the association.
On the inner side of these hillocks, muddy and sandy bare
places, and shallow pools of salt water exist. The drier places
are occupied by a closed vegetation consisting of Agropyron
pungens, Juncus gerardi, and Glaux maritima. Where the
ground is subject to occasional over-flows of salt-water, this
society is reduced to the Juncus. Where the soil is more charged
with water these species are associated :—Honckenya peploides,
Aster tripolium, Glaux maritima, Plantago maritima, Triglochin
maritimum, Juncus gerardi, Carex arenaria, Agropyron pungens.
In and about the shallow pools of salt water, various species
of Salicornia abound. Plants that also grow on the sandy
shore here are, Statice limonium, Salsola kali, Eryngium mari-
timum, Atriplex babingtonii, Festuca rubra var. barbata, etc.
Further inshore, where the soil is more compacted, the sea
Couch-grass Agropyron pungens is dominant, accompanied
by Beta maritima, Suaeda maritima, various Atriplices such as
A. littoralis and A. portulacoides, etc., Artemisia maritima,
Bupleurum tenuissimum, Spergularia marginata var. glandulosa,
S. neglecta.
The sandy ground, protected by the concrete sea wall, bears
such plants as Trifolium arvense, T. fragiferum. T. procumbens,
Plantago coronopus, Juncus maritimus, Phragmites communis,