193 



grew side by side. He found S. altemiflora only on the Itchen, 



and the following details of the conditions under which it grew, 



and the uses to which it was put at that date, are of considerable 

 interest : — 



"The proportion in quantity between S. altemiflora and 

 b. stricta at Southampton is very unequal, the predominance in 

 favour of the new species being, on the most moderate estimate, 

 at least ten to one. S. alter nitiora seems, as far as I can ascertain, 

 to be the only kind above the Itchen Ferry, where it occurs in 

 vast profusion, in irregular patches or fields of very various 

 dimensions, from a dozen yards to two or three hundred in 

 circumference, thickly scattered over the great beds of mud and 

 ooze, partly covered, and partly above the surface at high water, 

 the treacherous and shifting soil of which, our plant, amongst its 

 other valuable qualities, contributes, with its densely fibrous and 

 matted roots and runners, materially to consolidate. These 

 bpartina-swamps extend along each side of the river, beginning 

 just above the village of Itchen, to within a few hundred yards of 

 Northam Bridge, beyond which I have never met with either 

 kind Our Spartina adds to the richness of the view from Pear- 

 tree Green, and other elevated spots, by the mellow tint of its 

 masses that clothe the shores ; the culm and leaves acquiring, in 

 incipient decay, at this season (Oct. 23rd), a fine reddish-brown or 

 tawny hue, totally unlike the pale, dull, ashy colour which 

 b. strtcta puts on late in the year. Below the ferry and 

 descending towards the junction of the Itchen and Southampton 

 rivers, S. altemiflora reappears in smaller quantity and of less 

 luxuriant growth ; and here, for the first time, stricta begins to 

 snow itself in detached portions, often growing side by side with 

 tlie former, but never mingling with it. 



"The people employed about the ferry are unanimous in 

 asserting that S. altemiflora was not found below that point till 

 ot late years, it being a tradition among them that the plant was 

 brought from some place higher up the stream on the first 

 melting of the ice after a hard winter, about twelve or fourteen 

 years back, as far as I can collect, though of the precise date 

 no one pretends to speak positively. Nor do any of them profess 

 to know how long it has been growing above the ferry, though all 

 agree it is much more abundant there now than ever, and is still 

 increasing annually. One old man declared to me, he remembered 

 it all his life on the upper station ; another that there was none of 

 it in his younger days. It is difficult to reconcile such conflicting 

 accounts, except by supposing different plants to be confounded 

 together — Scirpus maritimus, perhaps, which is plentiful along 

 the shore, yet far less so than our Spartina. I have traced its 

 termination upwards, which finishes below Northam Bridge. 

 Much higher it could not occur, as the Itchen soon loses the 

 character of a tide-river, and at Wood Mills, not above three or 

 four miles from its junction with the Southampton estuary, 

 becomes a freshwater stream. 



imported from 



altemifl 



**^^ui lcu xj uu± .cLinerioa, turner in i/aiiao^, v* ^« *~ ^~~— •*--, 



in stowing the hold, and so have become naturalized with us. Its 



aerai 



28065 



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