2220 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



menced his operations in the Gulf of Gascony, in 1789. The downs there are 

 composed of drifting sands, covering 300 square miles. Bremontier compares 

 the surface of this immense tract to a sea, which, when agitated to fury by a 

 tempest, had been suddenly fixed, and changed to sand. It offered nothing to 

 the eye, but a monotonous repetition of white wavy mountains, perfectly de- 

 stitute of vegetation. In times of violent storms of wind, the surface of these 

 downs was entirely changed ; what w ere hills of sand often becoming valleys, 

 and the contrary. The sand, on these occasions, was often carried up into 

 the interior of the country, covering cultivated fields, villages, and even entire 

 forests. This takes place so gradually (by the sand sweeping along the sur- 

 face, and thus raising it, or falling from the air in a shower of particles, so 

 fine as to be scarcely perceptible), that nothing is destroyed. The sand gradually 

 rises among crops, as if they were inundated w ith water ; and the herbage and 

 the tops of trees appear quite green and healthy, even to the moment of their 

 being overwhelmed with the sand, which is so very fine as to resemble that 

 used in England in hour-glasses. After three chapters of preliminary matter 

 of intense interest, M. Bremontier, in his fourth chapter, gives an account of 

 the manner in which he proceeded, not only to fix this sea of sand, but to 

 render it productive of timber, resin, and other articles. This process is as 

 remarkable for its simplicity as for its complete success. It consists in sowing 

 on the surface seeds of the common broom, mixed with those of i'inus Pi- 

 naster ; commencing on the side next the sea, or on that from w hich the 

 wind generally prevails, and sowing in narrow zones, in a direction at right 

 angles to that of the wind ; the first-sown zone being protected by a line of 

 hurdles, this zone protecting the second, the second the third, and so on, til! 

 the whole breadth of the downs in that locahty is covered with plantation. 

 From 4 lb. to 5 lb. of broom seed, and from 1 lb. to 2 lb. of pinaster seed, 

 are sown per acre, and immediately covered with branches of pines, or of 

 other trees, with the leaves on, brought from the nearest woods, in order to 

 shelter and protect the seed, and, by the help of the hurdle fence, to retain 

 the sand. These branches are laid down in a regular manner in the direction 

 of the wind, and overlapping one another, so as to produce a sort of thatching 

 to the surface ; and, in places very much exposed, rods are laid across them, 

 and finnly hooked down. In a word, wherever seeds are sown, the surface of 

 the downs, as far as the sowing extends, may be said to be carefully thatched ; 

 branches of evergreen trees beii>g used instead of straw. In six weeks or two 

 months, the broom seeds have produced plants 6 in. in height, and which 

 attain three or four times that height in the course of the first season. The 

 pines do not rise above 3 in. or -i in. the first year ; and it is 7 or 8 years before 

 they completely overtop the broom, which often attains, in these downs, from 

 12 ft. to 16 ft. in height. At the age of 10 or 12 years, the pines have, in a 

 great measure, suffocated the broom, and they are then thinned, the branches 

 cut off being used for the purpose of thatching downs not yet recovered, and 

 the trunks and roots cut into pieces and burned, to make tar and charcoal. 

 In about 20 years, the trees are from 20 ft. to 30 ft. in height ; and they are 

 now prepared for producing resin, which process is carried on, in the manner 

 hereafter described, for 10 or 12 years ; when the trees are cut down, and their 

 branches applied, as before, for thatching, and their trunks and roots for making 

 tar and charcoal; the self-sown seeds having furnished the surface with a pro- 

 geny to succeed them. In 181 1, a commission appointed by the French go- 

 vernment made a report on the downs, and announced that about 12,.j00 

 acres of downs had been covered with thriving plantations, and that it was 

 found a thatching or covering of any kind of vegetable herbage, such as straw, 

 rushes, reeds, sea-weed, &c., might be used instead of branches, and was even 

 preferable. Another improvement which had been tried, and found very suc- 

 cessful, was the substitution of a fence of boards for that of wattled hurdles, as 

 more completely excluding the wind. C^i^e IJict. cles Eaux ct Fori-ts, torn. i. 

 p. 816.) These plantations, and others in the Landes of Bordeaux, and be- 



