SPARTINA TOWNSENDII 247 



solid particles brought clown by the streams, catching and 

 precipitating them. The result is an accelerated and increased 

 deposition of mud over the area tenanted by the grass. The level 

 of the mudbank becomes raised, the mud itself firmer. Further, 

 the decay of each year's growth enriches gradually the mud with 

 nitrates and sulphides and other salts, and prepares it for the 

 reception of types of vegetation which were until then excluded 

 from it. On the land side of the Spartina belt, where there is 

 only a foot of water at high-tide, a growth of Aster Tripolium and 

 Ohione portulacoides springs up among the grass, the first heralds 

 of the reclamation of land that has set in. If the process 

 continues, the muddy foreshore will gradually be replaced by 

 terra firma. But another effect is more immediate, that of the 

 protection which the grass affords to the shore behind it against 

 the erosive action of the sea. The stems of the grass opposing 

 themselves in their millions to the onrushing tides, to currents 

 and the wind-driven sea, act like a natural breakwater to the 

 shore behind them. It might be feared that the grass would 

 become a nuisance to navigation by blocking up the waterways, 

 but this is not the case. Bound to shallow water, it is not likely 

 to invade the deeper water channels. On the contrary, the 

 consolidation and gradual elevation of the grass-grown fiats along 

 them tends to increase the scouring action of the currents and 

 tides on the sides and bottoms of those waterways, making their 

 banks steeper and increasing their depth. 



There is no reason why artificial plantations of Townsend's 

 grass, under conditions corresponding to those of its native 

 habitat, should not be successful. Propagation by division is 

 easy, and the grass takes on well and grows rapidly, as experi- 

 ments made in the Medway River and in New Zealand show. 



When the grass is young, the leaves and stems are succulent 

 and sweetish, and cattle and horses relish it. Several American 

 species of Spartina are cut and fed to horses and cattle on a large 

 scale. Analyses of Townsend's grass, made on behalf of the 

 Board of Agriculture, show that for nutritious qualities it is quite 

 equal to its American allies, and may be classed as a good average 

 fodder grass. Other uses to which the grass has been put and 

 might be put on a larger scale are for thatching, and, above all, 

 for mulching. It has even been tried for paper-making, but with 

 doubtful success. 



SEX CHARACTER IN PLANTS. 



[The following interesting summary of the experiments at 

 Merton Park appeared in the Tifues of July 20.] 



Work of great interest is now being done at the John Innes 

 Horticultural Institution at Merton Park, where Professor Bate- 

 son and his staff are conducting investigations in genetics and in 

 the problems of sex characters and hybridization in plants. The 

 whole question of variations and mutation and the transmission 

 of sex characters from one generation to another is not only one 



