BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS 251 



the sea-front of the dunes that extend for miles along the coast 

 north of Aberdeen. It forms a more or less marked belt, varying 

 in width usually from a few feet to about twenty yards, but extending 

 landward to a considerably greater breadth in a few places, usually 

 near the mouths of streams. It seldom rises much beyond fifteen 

 feet above sea-level, and the upper limit of the belt is visible from a 

 distance, the Lyme Grass, both in colour and in size of leaf, forming 

 a marked contrast to the vegetation higher on the dunes. It is a 

 very valuable defence to the dunes, growing almost to the tide mark, 

 and retaining the sand from being washed or blown away. It thus 

 leads to the formation of new dunes by catching the wind-driven 

 sand. Near the sea it is the only grass, but may be associated with 

 cakik maritima, or, less often, with other plants of the foreshore. 

 After the sand has accumulated for some time, the Marram (Psamma 

 arenaria), sand Fescue (Festuca ovina), and sand Couch-grass (Agro- 

 pyrum junceum) find room among the Elymus, at first in very small 

 numbers, but increasing until the upper limit of the belt is reached, 

 and they become dominant grasses. Very few dicotyledons appear 

 able to invade the Elymus belt, an occasional plant of Thalictrum 

 dunense or Lotus corniculatus showing here and there, but few others. 

 In view of the existing abundance of Elymus arenarius on the 

 coast of Aberdeenshire it is worth noting that even in Dickie's 

 " Botanist's Guide to the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kin- 

 cardine," published in 1860, we read "sandy seashores. Rather 

 local." It is there particularly recorded as " Near Aberdeen, a small 

 patch at the south end of the Fish-town, Footdee ; and at the mouth 

 of the Don on the north side, G. D. ; coast at Cruden, Mr. A. 

 Murray; at the village of St. Combes, parish of Lonmay." It was 

 thus apparently a very local, if not rare, plant on this coast in the 

 middle of last century. There are no records for it on the Banff- 

 shire coast in the " Botanist's Guide " ; and I found only one small 

 patch of it on that coast in August 1895, on the beach near the west 

 end of Sandend Links. In Aberdeenshire it occurs on sandy coasts 

 as far west as the parish of Pitsligo. On the coast of Kincardine 

 there are few places suitable for its growth ; but I have seen it in 

 small quantity near the mouth of the Burn of Benholme, and in fair 

 abundance on the beach along the Links of St. Cyrus. Near Aberdeen 

 the roots of Elymus very often bear numerous irregularly formed 

 small galls, the work of a nematoid worm very closely allied to 

 Tylenchus Hordei, the cause of the disease of Barley known as Krok 

 in Sweden. This grass also suffers considerably from the attacks of 

 a smut fungus (Ustilago hypodytes) which covers the stems below the 

 leaf-sheaths, often filling the interspace for several inches with soot- 

 like spores. The infested plants grow tall and lanky so as to be 

 easily distinguished even from some distance, and do not bear a 

 flower-head. The Elymus belt is the favourite habitat of an interest- 



