12 



SCIENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA 



the timber amount to 160,000. The chief trees planted are Black 

 Wattle (Acacia decurrens), Cluster-pine (Pimts pinaster], various 

 Eucalypts, and on the lower better ground Oak (Quercus peduncu- 

 Idtd). There are various smaller timber plantations which, to- 

 gether w^th the larger plantations mentioned, amount altogether 

 to about 23,000 acres. 



DRIFT SAND PLANTATIONS. 



Among the most successful plantations undertaken by the Cape 

 Forest Department must be reckoned those performed with ihe 

 object of fixing the sands. Of such plantations there are large areas 

 on the Cape Flats, undertaken some years ago to protect the Rail- 

 way from drifting sands. At the head of False Bay an artificial 



Morram Grass-planting at Agulhas, 



1904. 



coast dune like the " dune littorale " of Gascony, has been 

 run along the shore, stopping the further ingress of sand. Even 

 at Port Nolloth, where the rainfall is only four inches per annum 



: has been found possible to stop a serious sand drift threatening 



the harbour by the planting of Eragrostis and other grasses. The 



that has been most largely employed for sand fixing is Morram 



known as Bent grass in Scotland), Psamma arenaria. Drift 

 sands threatened to overwhelm the Agulhas Lighthouse : nowhere 

 has the planting of Morram grass succeeded so remarkably as here 



ts growth can be seen from ships passing some distance out at sea 

 opens up wide possibilities for turning to account the dreary 



