196 



in Europe, fayour the hypothesis. Coste, " Flore de la France," 

 1906, vol. iiL, p. 554, " Landes, Basses-Pyrenees," does not 

 necessarily extend the area in France, as the Departments are 

 bounded by the river Adour. American botanists mostly treat 

 S. stricta and S. alterniflora as varieties of one species, and 

 Britton and Brown, " Illustrated Flora," 1896, vol. i., p. 177, state 

 that " our plant does not seem to have been satisfactorily identified 

 with the European." 



It may be useful to add that there is a manuscript monograph 

 at Kew of the genus Spartina by J. Gay, with the inscription at 

 the beginning : "Commence le 29 Juillet et fini, pour la qnatrieme 

 fois, le 3 Aout, 1819." 



In response to a letter asking whether any light could be 

 thrown on the name "rice-grass," which has now for the first 

 time been quoted in connection with Spartina, the vernacular 

 name hitherto given being "cord-grass," Lord Montagu of 

 Beaulieu, writes on May 2, 1907, :— " Mr. Rankin, of the Ports- 

 mouth Marine Biological Institute, who was at Beaulieu last 

 Saturday, told me he thought the plant growing on my foreshore 

 was Spartina stricta, and not the alterniflora. He seemed to be 

 quite aware of the term ' rice-grass,' though I did not specifically 

 ask him what the plant was called locally in the neighbourhood 

 of Portsmouth, where it also abounds. Certainly round the 

 estuary of the Beaulieu river and in the district around Lymington 

 I have never heard it called by any other name, but I will make 

 inquiries this week end, and find out whether there are any 



people who call it ' Sagg.' Personally I have never heard this 

 word." 



The day before this letter was written an interesting and 

 valuable paper on "The protection of Seashores from Erosion" 

 was read before the Society of Arts by Mr. A. E. Carey. In the 

 discussion on this paper Lord Montagu of Beaulieu 'took part. 

 Atter recapitulating the evidence already given by him before the 

 Koyal Commission on coast erosion, and referring to the report he 



t 1 re , c r eiTed from Kew > as to the identity of the grasses concerned, 

 Lord Montagu is reported to have said, with regard to Spartina 

 alterniflora, that « the first record he personally found of it was 

 about 1666, when it was mentioned in some Hampshire records as 

 navmg existed at what was then known as Itchen ferrv, on what 

 is now known as the Woolston shore of Southampton Water." 

 inis is interesting as being a record three years prior to that made 

 by Dr. Bromheld, though it is still four years subsequent to the 

 hret known collection of the grass in the same neighbourhood by 



Montag 



wHiT^ a 7 1U not exisl on tne mudflats in the Solent until 



nmSfn^? p r U J ™ TB ' He couId ^collect when there was 



SnSr i ♦• 1 Be 1 a ^ he 1 u river > which was a large estuary ; but it was 

 now entirelv chokerl ™ wit). ;+ „ui , £_ ... J ', 



main waterwav was 



"S? ! Ver lt \ was ; He C0 »1<1 not help thinking that the grass 

 2 Ja f JL ff\ Valuab e additi ™ to the means of reclaiming 



Sat it wnn?S o ? S near the mouths of rivera - He did not know 

 u»t it would act in very exposed places, but he had noticed in the 



