72 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



spring tides ; and in many parts of this State it is found nearer 

 to the sea than any other pine. It is thus adapted, in every 

 respect, to be planted on the extensive sands on Cape Cod, Nan- 

 tucket, and in some other parts, which are now not only utterly 

 barren and unproductive, but, by being blown about by the 

 winds, are a serious inconvenience to the habitations of man, 

 and threaten to overwhelm the cultivated spots in their vicinity. 

 On the western coasts of the continent of Europe, particularly 

 in Holland, and in Gascony in France, are similar and more 

 extensive wastes of drifting sand, called dunes or downs, which, 

 from time immemorial, had been barren. These were tossed 

 about by the winds, like the waves of the sea, the whole aspect 

 of the desert being sometimes changed by a storm, valleys tak- 

 ing the place of hills, and hills of valleys. Fields, villages and 

 even forests, had been overwhelmed by it, and it threatened to 

 extend itself continually inland. " To obviate this evil," says 

 Decandolle,* from whom I borrow the account, " the Dutch had 

 for a long time been in the habit of sowing these downs with 

 beach grass, (Arundo arenaria, L.), that its long matting roots 

 might fix the sand. But if this takes from the sand its power 

 of injuring, it leaves it wholly useless. On seeing the downs of 

 Holland, I was struck with this defect, and pointed out the 

 advantages of planting trees there. I was not then aware that 

 the engineer Bremontier had, as early as 1789, made trial of 

 this very expedient on the downs of Gascony. Its success has 

 since been made public, and I have myself had the pleasure 

 of witnessing it, which I did with unaffected admiration. The 

 process of Bremontier is remarkable for its simplicity. He 

 sows, in the loosest and dryest sand, the seeds of broom, 

 (Genista scopa?'ia,) with those of the maritime pine,f (Pinus 

 maritima) ; and covers the surface sown, with branches taken 

 from the nearest pine forest. The object of the branches is to 

 arrest the sand for a time, and keep it from blowing away. 

 The plants of the broom spring up first, and by their rapid 

 growth, serve to retain the sand in its place and to shelter the 



* Physiologie Vegetale, p. 1236, Vol. III. 



f This is a variety of the cluster pine, (Pinus pinaster.) 



