190 



Lagos Rubber (Funtumia elastica). — A consignment of seed of 

 this tree was received from the Botanic Station at Lagos. It 

 germinated well, and the young plants have grown very freely. 

 Nineteen were permanently planted out in November of the year 

 under review. 



The same species of rubber tree has recently been discovered in 

 Uganda, and a parcel of seed has been received from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and Forestry there. This seed also germinated 

 freely, and the plants are healthy. Upwards of 2,000 Funtumia 

 plants will be available for planting during the next rainy season. 

 It is intended to plant out several acres of this tree near the 

 station. If the Funtumia should succeed there, as would soon be 

 seen, large areas could be dealt with. 



XXXIII.-MUD-BINDINGr GRASSES. 



(Spartina stricta, Linn., and allied forms.) 



The question of sea-defence work, now occupying the attention 

 of the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion, is one of great general 

 interest. Much has been recorded with regard to mechanical 

 devices for arresting the removal and promoting the accretion of 



made 



„ , preservation „„„„„„ w vtu^o uj »«n~ 



binding grasses and other sand-loving plants has been dealt with 

 so often that the subject now possesses a voluminous literature of 

 its own. This literature has been fully summarised by Gerhardt 

 in Eandbuch des deutschen Diinenbaues* pp. 629-644, Berlin, 

 1900, to which reference may t 

 full information on the subject. 



The latest and one of the most comprehensive accounts of sand- 

 bmding grasses enumerated by Gerhardt is that by Mr. Lamson- 

 Scribner, published in the Year Book of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1898, pp. 405-420. A perusal of this 

 paper may be recommended to all who desire to find the salient 

 facts clearly presented in a concise manner. 



As compared with the effects of vegetation in preserving sandy 

 shores and fixing sandy foreshores, the action of plants in assisting 

 the accretion of mud and in fixing and preserving muddy fore- 

 shores has received comparatively little systematic attention. A 

 sketch of these processes as they present themselves in the great 

 Gangetic delta has been given in the Records of tlie Botanical 

 Survey of India, vol. ii„ No. 4, pp. 231 et seq.J and incidental 

 allusions to the subject are to be found scattered throughout the 

 literature of topographical and geological botany. The subject is, 

 however, one that is of much interest everywhere from the purely 

 scientific point of view, and one that 

 of considerable practical importance. 



ter*ium an i b r U ?ffi e f a u d r taC ^ I ? ttnenb *™s ™ Auftrage dea Kgl. Preuss. Mini 8 - 

 Abromei? V5 r£* £ ^Xf^V 1 " 1 Unter Mitmrkung von Dr. Johanne* 

 Bern? WW ™ S" , A « f - r « d J . e ? fczsch > herausgegeben von Paul Gerhardt ; 



+ <IL f^ PP', 1 --™ 11 -. l-«°6, with 445 figurea in the text. 



t See especially a reference to the action «f rt,„.„ !ZS2L o—v .* „ «* 



may 



