It is by no means easy to say where the seashore begins landward. It may be limited by cliffs and mountain-ground, so that there is but little shore, and the tide-water then comes up the sides of the cliff; and it may reach for miles inland, among salt marshes, the ditches of which have salt water and marine animals and plants in them. Again, even when the shore is perfectly limited inland, there are proofs that the sea is near, long before it is reached. Trees usually get scarce, and often those which are seen are much gnarled and bent and covered with lichens. A new set of flowering plants is noticed, and the old favorites of the meadow and wood are absent; and grasses, reeds, rushes, and many singular plants straggle on the sand and pebbles, out of the range of the tide, but within that of the spray sent in by a high wind. Common observation has enabled even the most unscientific collectors of plants to recognize what may be called a maritime, coast, or shore flora, just as they can distinguish a marsh, mountain, or wood flora beyond the range of the sea. A flora is the name for all the plants of a district, and it has been found that the seaside and seashore floras of these islands are very rich in kinds. Indeed, there are many little local floras included in the great seaside one, for the landscape, the nature of the rocks, and the vegetation of the shore, differ greatly in different parts. Each particular landscape by the sea, and every kind of soil there, has its little set of peculiar plants, some liking limestone, others clay, many rejoicing in sand, and some even finding nourishment among the highest pebbles.