Hepburn - Flowers of the Coast

JOHN GILMOUR, M.A., V.M.H.

SIR JULIAN HUXLEY, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.

MARGARET DAVIES, M.A., Ph.D.

KENNETH MELLANBY, C.B.E., Sc.D.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EDITOR:

ERIC HOSKING, F.R.P.S.

The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wild life of Britain by recapturing the inquiring spirit of the old naturalists. The Editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native fauna and flora, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research. The plants and animals are described in relation to their homes and habitats and are portrayed in the full beauty of their natural colours, by the latest methods of colour photography and reproduction.

to
PHYLLIS
who loves the sea but is sometimes uncertain of her botany

IN ANY civilised country the two types of habitat least altered by man or his domesticated animals are the mountains and the coast. Mountains and Moorlands have already been dealt with in this series by Professor W. H. Pearsall, and, in the present volume, Mr. Ian Hepburn tackles the wild flowers of our coast. Despite the modest disclaimer in his Preface, Mr. Hepburn is particularly well qualified for the task. He is Second Master at Oundle School and one of the leading amateur plant ecologists in the country. He has served on the Council of the British Ecological Society for many years and has published the results of a number of his ecological investigations, including work on the plants of the Northamptonshire limestone and of sea-cliffs. As one would expect, his approach to coastal vegetation is primarily an ecological one, but he has by no means neglected the beauty or botanical interest of the plants themselves, and we feel that he gives in his book a balanced and vivid account of a fascinating subject.

Coastal vegetation has always had a particular attraction for field botanists, and the reasons are not difficult to understand. First, in no other habitat does the flora change so completely in the course of a short walk; one minute there is sand filling our shoes, and marram-grass pricking our legs, and the next a level carpet of sea-lavender lies around us, the dunes are left behind and a grey cliff, with samphire and tree-mallow, lures us farther on. In Britain, probably more than any other country, is this ever-varying quality of the coastline manifest; and the maritime vegetation shows a corresponding richness. Secondly, many of the plants themselves are of great beauty and, in some cases, rarity. The lovely glaucous leaves of the oyster-plant setting off its blue and pink flowers against a Scottish shingle bank, or the autumn squill sprinkling a dry September cliff-turf in Cornwall, spring to the mindand there are many others. Thirdly, for an ecologist, the coast has a special interest, as nowhere are the succession of vegetation and its dependence on a varying environment so evident, and nowhere have they been more thoroughly investigated. As Mr. Hepburn shows, in an acre or two of salt-marsh are displayed, for those who have eyes to see, most of the more important principles of stable vegetational succession, while on a newly fallen section of cliff, the gradual colonisation of virgin ground can be studied year after year. Lastly, if the environment for the plants is unrivalled in its variety, it is no less so for the humans who study them; a botanist who chooses the British coasts as his hunting ground can enjoy, with a clear conscience, a succession of seaside holidays on what is perhaps the finest coastline in the world.

THE EDITORS

IT WAS with considerable diffidence that I, a mere amateur, accepted the invitation of the Editors to write this book. Nor has the subsequent appearance of other books in this series, all written by experts, done anything to dispel this feeling. Nevertheless, I am grateful to them for being so insistent that I should try my hand, for I have greatly enjoyed doing it, and certainly know rather more about the subject than I did when I started!

Ever since I began to take an interest in wild flowers I have always found maritime plants especially attractive. I was lucky enough to go to school within five miles of Blakeney, and first learnt the common seaside plants on the Cley marshes, the Weybourne shingle bank, and sometimes on the historic Blakeney Point itself. Later, I had the good fortune to live for a number of years in north Cornwall, where, in addition to fine stretches of cliffs, excellent sand-dunes and small areas of salt-marsh were within easy reach. Coastal vegetation, therefore, is very much in my blood, and if I have been able, in this book, to convey something of the pleasure I have had in botanising along the coast, I shall be very well satisfied. Now that it is written, my first wish is to get out to the coast once more to start some field-work. Perhaps I may express the hope that others may be similarly stimulated.

I am deeply indebted to many authors, whose books and original papers I have freely consulted. A full list of these, with acknowledgments, appears in the Bibliography. I count myself very fortunate in having persuaded Professor Steers to write the chapter on the physiography of the coast. No one else possesses his detailed knowledge of the whole coastline of Britain, and he should really have written the whole book himself, for he is no mean botanist. I am specially grateful to John Markham for taking so much trouble in obtaining many of the photographs I requiredwhatever may be said about the text, it will be generally admitted that his pictures are first-class. Finally my grateful thanks are due to John Gilmour for his continual encouragement and advice at all stages.

For permission to reproduce figures appearing in the text acknowledgment is made to the following sources:

Cambridge University Press: , from The British Islands and their Vegetation (1939) by A. G. Tansley.

G. Bell and Sons, Limited: from Plant Form and Function (1946) by F. E. Fritsch and E. J. Salisbury.

Royal Geographical Society: from The Geographical Journal (1937).

THERE IS NO NEED to possess any great knowledge of botany to see at once that a number of plants grow round our coasts which are never seen inland. It matters little whether you explore a salt-marsh, a sand-dune area, a shingly beach, or some rocky cliffs; in any of these places you can count on coming across some, at any rate, of these purely coastal plants. Moreover, where the conditions are suitable, they often occur in large numbers and are chiefly responsible for the great difference in appearance between seaside and inland vegetation as a whole. In point of fact the characteristic look of the vegetation is often due to the presence of comparatively few coastal species, for along most of the coastline many familiar inland plants can be seen as well. Indeed it is only in salt-marshes, where the whole area is regularly washed by the tides, that practically the whole plant population is composed of maritime species. Most of those growing on sand-dunes, for instance, are also found inland but, since the highly distinctive marram-grass is the dominant species in nearly all areas of blown sand, the vegetation of the whole area acquires its characteristic coastal appearance.