148 PLANT-LIFE ON LAND [ch. ix 



or Permanent Dime. Every Golfer knows how 

 important is the continuity of this skin of turf, thin 

 and delicate as it is. If even a small hole in it be 

 left to itself it may be enlarged into an undesirable 

 bunker by the action of the wind whisking away 

 the loose sand that lies below. It is not without 

 good reason that the replacement of a " divot " cut 

 out by an iron club has become something more 

 than a courtesy of the links. It should be accepted 

 as an imperative rule, the observance of which is 

 merely continuing the order of Nature. But the 

 green-keeper, with his barrow of soil and packet 

 of grass-seed, is doubtless a more efficient agent in 

 the maintenance of the protective skin of fine turf : 

 for the replaced sod frequently fails to settle again, 

 especially where the turf is thin and sandy. 



There are thus three factors which share the 

 prime construction of the sea-side Links. The first 

 is the rocky skeleton which defines the broad features 

 of outline. Secondly, there are the Dune-Builders, 

 by whose means the moving sand is temporarily 

 held, and aggregated into heaps of various form : 

 and thus are initiated those swelling contours which 

 give so much of their character to the coastal 

 courses. Thirdly, the skin of mixed vegetation 

 which follows, giving permanence to the otherwise 

 inconstant Dune. Jointly these factors supply that 

 raw material from which the fully protected course 





