350 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
XXV. Remarks on the Planting of the Sandhills on the Sea-Coast 
at Holkham, Norfolk. By ARcHIBALD GorRIE,! 
Holkham Sandhills, the property of the Right Honourable the 
Earl of Leicester, K.G., were rabbit warrens until the year 1850. 
They extend about 3} miles along the Norfolk coast, from 5 to 25 
chains wide, bounded by the German Ocean on the north, and on 
the south by rich pasture land reclaimed from the sea, dating as 
far back as 1660, when the first enclosure was made. These hills 
are held together by a plant called Psamma arenarius, which has 
a strong creeping perennial root, with many tubers at the joints 
about the size of a pea. It is planted and encouraged on the 
Norfolk coast to aid in fixing the sand against the action of the 
wind and tides, which it does in a remarkable manner. The 
‘‘marrum,” as it is locally called, or Bent-grass, is considered of 
so much importance that there are severe laws to prohibit its being 
destroyed. Mats are made of it, and it is also used as thatch. 
Elymus arenarius, the Sea Lyme-grass, a strong, rough, glaucous 
plant, common on sandy shores, is also frequent here, and answers 
the same purpose in fixing the sand as the “marrum.” In 
analysing the soluble matter afforded by this grass, Sir H. Davy 
found it to contain more than one-third of its weight in sugar. It 
is not, however, eaten by any of our domestic animals. 
About 1850 I sowed several kinds of pine seeds on the sand- 
hills, putting some of the seeds in small pellets of clay and inserting 
them in the sand, and in various other ways. I did this for two 
or three years in succession, but it ended in failure. I then 
planted a few plants of well-established Pinus austriaca, P. 
Laricio, and Scots fir, and had them thoroughly protected from 
rabbits, never thinking they would do much good in the pure 
sand, but I was agreeably surprised at the end of the first season. 
The plants all lived and made one or two inches of young wood, 
and seemed healthy; the second year they did better, when I drew 
the Earl of Leicester’s attention to the matter, and he was so 
satisfied with the growth of the trees that were planted that he at 
once set about destroying the rabbits, and planted a small portion 
of the hills every year till the whole is now completed. 
The east end of the hills, nearly two miles in length, which was 
1 Presented by Mr Archibald Gorrie, Brookmans Park, Hatfield, Herts, 
