300 The Plant World. 



efficient is Spinifex hirsutus, a rapidly growing perennial grass, 

 having numerous stout, branching rhizomes of great length. 

 Its method of seed dissemination is remarkably adapted to its 

 habitat. It is dioecious, and has a globose female inflorescence, 

 often a foot in diameter, composed of radiating spines some 

 five inches long, at the base of each of which there is a one- 

 flowered spikelet. Borne by the strong breezes these balls go 

 bounding over the sand, ultimately breaking up and scattering 

 their seeds far from the parent plants. 



Since the settlement of the country the native covering 

 has been largely destroyed by fires, grazing and cultivation, and 

 the result has been that the dunes have become active, and are 

 occasioning great damage, and threatening more. Even slight 

 wounds in the surface, such for instance as might be made by a 

 sheep rubbing its tick infested back, are liable to be scooped 

 out and enlarged by the powerful winds, until eventually the 

 whole hill is set in motion. 



A few attempts have been made at reclamation, and in 

 some cases a limited success has been achieved, but no compre- 

 hensive, intelligently directed scheme has been adopted. Plant- 

 ings made in ignorance of the conditions of the problem have 

 been ineffectual, and some injurious, for plants may create as 

 well as restrain dunes. Much of the report is devoted to a state- 

 ment of the principles and practices which must be observed 

 for successful reclamation. 



In New Zealand, as elsewhere, afforestation must be re- 

 garded as the ultimate solution of dune reclamation, but under 

 the conditions there existing this can be accomplished only as 

 the climax of a series of preliminary plantings. The author 

 recommends beginning with Marram Grass {Ammo ph da aren- 

 aria), to be succeeded by the California Tree Lupine {Lupinus 

 arboreus), and then by some of the native shrubs, and at last, 

 under their shelter, by trees. Of these the most esteemed are 

 the two Monterey conifers Cupressus macrocarpus and Pinus 

 radiata, and Firms muricata. An extended annotated list of 

 plants worthy of tiial is given, for it is felt that wide experi- 

 mentation is needed to determine the species best adapted to 

 varying conditions. 



