A USEFUL FAMILY. 185 



The kinds of grass by means of which the process of re- 

 clamation must be initiated are the sea sand-reed, men- 

 tioned above, which is the best of all, and also sea Ijaiie- 

 grass {Elyvtiis are7iaruis), bitter panic grass {Paniciivi 

 amaruni), sea oats {Uniola pa?iiciclaia) , and others of local 

 but less general value. According to Scribner, the ag- 

 rostologist, the sea sand-reed and the sea lyme-grass, 

 " when combined, seem admirably adapted for the purpose 

 of forming a barrier to the encroachments of the sea ; the 

 sand that Beach-grass arrests and collects about itself the 

 Lyme-grass secures and holds fast." Concerning the 

 Beach-grass (sea sand-reed) the same authority makes the 

 following somewhat amazing statement : "The sand col- 

 lects around the clumps of grass, and as it accumulates 

 the grass grows up and overtops it, and will so continue to 

 grow, no matter how high the sand hill maj^ rise. A plant 

 will, by gradual upgrowth, finally form stems and roots 

 sanded in to the depth of fully 100 ft.! " 



[F. Ivamson-Scribner, Bulletin No. 3, U. S. Dept. Agr , 

 Division of Agrostology, Useful and Ornamental Grasses. 

 1896.] 



To all the other useful properties of the grass famil5\ 

 then, may be added these, that it can staj' the onset of the 

 sea, and that it can make the desert blossom as the rose — 

 statements not so hj-perbolical as they may sound. It is 

 undoubtedly a fact that the rich and prosperous country of 

 Holland could not have attained its commeroial and finan- 

 cial eminence but for the grasses that bound the sands that 

 composed the dikes that fended the ocean off her cultivat- 

 ed fields. To compare small things with great, Province- 

 town, on Cape Cod, would have been buried in sand or 

 washed away, but for the same humble barrier-forming 

 plants. Every year in the month of April, the inhabitants 

 were formerly obliged by law to turn out and plant ' ' Mar- 

 ram," as the grass was called, until both sea and sand 

 were conquered and the safety of the town assured. 



