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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



So far the gain is evident, a new estate is being founded, 

 established by the waters ; but every wind that blows 

 upon the shore is the ag^nt in another change, and one 

 most dis istrous in its unchecked results. The loose 

 summit of the sand-bank is swept inward, its fine par- 

 ticles drifting like a mist over the level, perhaps long- 

 settled and cultivated country, coverinji the pasture, 

 the garden, and the corn-field, and impairing their 

 fertility. The ultimate design in nature is to elevate 

 the land by these additions to its surface; but to living 

 and toiling man tlieir unrestrained deposit is fearlul 

 and paralyzing. To form any adequate idea of the dis- 

 tressing consequences to cultivation produced by this 

 drifting of sea-sand, we must visit districts liable to its 

 inroads, and observe the manner in which it is borne 

 with resistless force inland. IVeilher wall, nor hedge, nor 

 fence of any i<ind will stay its progress; it will surmount 

 and even bury all : a forest thick with undergrowth, 

 or a range of hills, are the only successful barriers to 

 its desolating career. On one part of the coast of Nor- 

 folk this sand-flood, as it is aptly denominated, is re- 

 corded as having advanced over the laud of the interior, 

 once fertile and productive, no less than five miles 

 during the past ctntury; and other instances of equal 

 and even greater destruction were mentioned in the 

 lectures to which allusion has been already made, as 

 well as in another course, the details of which are pub- 

 lished in the " Farmers' M.igazine," see vol. vii., 

 third series, 1855, page 342, ct scq. Such sand con- 

 .stitutes the favoured habitat of our land-forming 

 grasses, the destination of which is to fix and feitili^e 

 the fleeting masses. 



The most useful of these grasses, in this part of the 

 world at least, as being the most generally distributed 

 on the coasts of northern Europe, is the sca-recd. Its 

 botanical name, AmtiiO])Jiila arundlnacca, literully 

 "sand-loving reed grass," h;is been a'tered by some 

 modern writers in this department of natural histoiy to 

 Psumma iirenarla, both names having reference to its 

 natural propensity for sand, among which alone it is 

 found in a wild state. The change of name, that to the 

 general observer may appear needless, and only calcu- 

 lated to mislead the unscientific student, is in this 

 instance warranted by the circumstance that its first, 

 Avimophila, was previously bestowed upon a genus of 

 sand-burrowing insects, and that it is contrary to 

 etiquette among naturalists to confer corresponding 

 generic titles upon two different objects, even when 

 belonging to separate kingdoms. The English name, 

 " sea mat grass," may be all sufficient for general 

 distinction, but under this the Psamma is liable to be 

 confoumded with another grass of somewhat similar 

 habit, and by which it is occasionally accompanied, 

 namely, the Elynius arenarius, or " sea lyme grass," 

 which is nearly as common, and about equally effica- 

 cious in its consolidating functions. 



The habit or form of growthof all these sand-binders 

 is so strikingly alike, that in describing one we may 

 picture the wliole series. Their principal development 

 is below thf surl'ace, w!iere it is continued almost uu- 

 iuterruptedly throughout the year, during nine or ten 

 months at least, with a rapidity truly astoni;hing t > 

 those who observe it for the first time. Early in the 

 sprinir, and thence until late in the autumn, the long, 

 and for a grass really broad, but always more or less 

 lolled or incurved leaves, are Irom time to time sent 

 up above the sand, in tui'ts that sometimes attain the 

 height of two or three feet or more. Such tufts are 

 forerunners of the flowering stems, which, however, 

 are vei-y frequently abortive, and, when developed, the 

 flowers are for the most part barren, that is, do not 

 mature their seeds; circumstances naturally resulting 

 from the wide and con'^tant propagation th^.t is gning 



forward below, and in which the vital energy of the 

 plant is chiefly expended. Corresponding instances of 

 barrenness in the flowers occur in lilies and other bulb- 

 ous plants, which propagate by offsets at the root, or 

 by the production of buds or bulbils upon the stem. 



The tufts of leaves and flower-stems constitute no 

 unimportant feature in the land-forming pr.icess : the 

 drifting sand accumulates around them, and thus are 

 formed hillocks or dunes that oppose the inundation of 

 the more settled portions of ground behind them, 

 during storms and spring-tides— a catastrophe that 

 would materially interfere with the processes of colo- 

 nizing and fertilizing. 



A remarkable peculiarity is observable in the roots 

 of these gras-es : they are generally clothed with 

 woolly or hairy fibres, that enable them to take firmer 

 hold of the loose medium to which their growth is con- 

 fined than would otherwise be possible. 



As the sand becomes fixed, and partly fertilized by 

 the annual growth and decay of these vegetable pio- 

 neers, they gradually yield place to others of different 

 character; migrating by pushing out their long sub- 

 terranean and branching stems constantly in the di- 

 rection where they meet with least resistance, or toward 

 the looser and more recently deposited sand, which 

 it is necesjary to fix in its turn. On the sandy shores 

 of the estuary of the Conwy, in Carnarvonshire, and 

 near the mouth of the Mersey on tlie Cheshire coast, I 

 have several times traced the running stems of the 

 Fsamma or mat-grass to the length of twenty or thirty 

 yards, without aniving at their termination. As every 

 joint (if these stems, and the joints are seldom more 

 than an inch and a half or two inches apart, is a centre 

 of growth, the enormous extent to which lateral pro- 

 pagation may be thus carried may be easily imagined. 

 The great strength anl toughness of this natural cord- 

 age at an early period attracted the attention of the 

 poorer inhabitants on some parts of our coasts, by whom 

 they arc often manufactured into mats and a coarse 

 kind of ropes; and Withering observes that, in his 

 time, those of Newborough, in Anglcsea, derived their 

 chief subsistence from such employment. The land 

 proprietors and others interested in the soil ought, 

 however, to regard its appropriation to any such pur- 

 poses as associated with danger to the neighbouring 

 country, and discourage it to the utmost of their power. 

 Cynodon dactylon (the creeping dog-tooth grass) 

 is another sand-binder, whose intricately-branched 

 stems creep above as well as below the surface. This 

 is properly a native of warmer lands than our own, but 

 it has become naturalized on the sea-coasts of Devon- 

 shire and Cornwall. 



Many other plants besides grasses assist in these 

 fixing and colonizing processes, but the latter almost 

 universally take the lead. 



A similar creeping habit to that above described is 

 observable in other grasses, the growth of which con- 

 tributes in various ways either to the actual formation 

 of land, or to the enhancement of its soliiiity. Gene- 

 rally considered, these differ much from the preceding 

 in regard to qualities, being less rigid, often highly 

 nutritious, aud well fkcd by cattle when lying within 

 their reach. Such are many species of the order 

 that vegetate in water, or occupying the shallow 

 borders of lakes and rivers. Their influence in 

 these situations is of considerable importance 

 in the broad economy of Nature, though not un- 

 frequently prejudicial to local convenience and 

 necessity in that of man. Among them one of the 

 most immediately valuable is the common reed, Thrag- 

 viitis communis of botanists, a grass of almost universal 

 distribution, especially over the northern hemisphere, 

 within the limits of which it extends, varying in stature 



