TPIE VEGETATION OF THE COAST. 



71 



last falling to pieces, the ' seeds ' are deposited and finally buried. 

 S. hirsutus naturally builds up fairly stable dunes which in some 

 places have a surface so even as to look like a railway-embankment 

 (fig. 30), as in the case of the dune fronting the shore near Wai- 

 kanae, in the Wellington Province. 



In Europe, America, and elsewhere plants and grazing animals 

 assumed their present forms side by side. The marram-grass of Europe 

 (Ammophila arenaria) is a case in point. This, although naturally 



-. - . . J > , . ' V -' 



. , .-/ v , ., ', 



' ^MitovKH 



' . ^"i . i, ,. 



FIG. 30. Natural and even Foredune built by Wind and the Silvery Sand-grass 



(Spin if?.? hit-tutu*). Coast near Waikanae. 



Lands Department.] [Photo, W. H. Field. 



little better as a sand-binder than our Scirpus or Spinifex, is of in- 

 finitely more value for ' reclaiming ' our moving sands, since it is 

 not relished as food, and. grows rapidly and luxuriantly. With the 

 marram may be used the lyme-grass (Elymus arenarius), another 

 European sand-bind 1 -r. 



Besides grasses, trees and shrubs are of great service for sand- 

 fixing. Of the latter, the tree-lupin of California (Lupinus arboreus) is a 



6 Plants. 



