OCTOBER 219 



coast of North America and to have established itself 

 abundantly in the Hampshire estuaries with beneficial 

 results. These results may be set to the credit of our 

 transatlantic cousins to balance the mischief arising 

 from their loan to us of the Canadian pond weed 

 (Elodea canadensis). The traditional origin and local 

 effects of cord-grass, which the Hampshire folk call 

 rice-grass, were described as follows by Lord Montagu 

 of Beaulieu in his evidence before the Royal Com- 

 mission : 



' The mudbanks on my property have recently been in- 

 creasing very rapidly. The accretion is due to a somewhat 

 extraordinary fact. Some years ago a ship came up South- 

 ampton Water from the River Plate with a quantity of 

 rice-grass on board. The seeds of this grass became dis- 

 tributed about the shores of Southampton Water, with the 

 result that the whole of that estuary is now covered with this 

 grass. It is a plant which grows very rapidly and spreads in 

 circles, and now the twenty miles from Hurst Castle to South- 

 ampton are covered with this grass, as are the mudbanks 

 on my foreshore. The stiff and sharp points catch the sea- 

 weed which comes over it, causing the bank to increase 

 rapidly in height.' 



In a discussion following a lecture on the protection 

 of seashores from erosion, delivered by Mr. A. E. Carey 

 before the Society of Arts, Lord Montagu stated that 

 no cord-grass existed on the mud-flats of Solent ten 

 years ago (although it has been known for at least a 

 hundred years on both banks of the Itchen between 

 Itchen village and Northam Bridge), and he estimated 

 the area now covered and protected by this plant at 

 from 6000 to 8000 acres. There are two varieties of 



