BEACH PLANTS 69 



trees promising to be conspicuous and picturesque, so 

 that credit is to be divided — the sea made the site, the 

 adjacent land provided all the becoming plants. 



What are the elements in this primitive spot which 

 afford nutriment to vegetation of such varied character ? 

 Probably there are few of the beaches of islands within 

 the Great Barrier Reef on which the majority of the 

 plants do not exist. It is typical, therefore, not of 

 isolated experiments on the part of Nature, but of condi- 

 tions and processes repeated in similitude wheresoever 

 in the region raw sand heals the wounds inflicted by 

 the sea or the grumbling sea retreats before the sibilant, 

 incessant sand. 



