summarized this controversy as follows: "One maintains that the 

 stronger transpiration on the seaward or windward side causes the 

 branches to die earliest there, while the other theory maintains that 

 salt particles carried in the spray account for branch destruction." 

 They speculated that both points of view were valid because the two 

 phenomena supplemented one another. 



Boodle (1920) considered salt spray to be the less important factor. 

 Weaver and Clements (1938) and Martin and Clements (1939) supported the 

 contention of Boodle (1920). Doutt (1941) and Davis (1942) found 

 evidence to support the contention that salt spray was of minor 

 importance. 



Wells and Shunk (1937) observed the injury of young windward side 

 shoots of M. oevifeva, J. vomitoria, and Q. virginiana on the lower 

 Cape Fear Peninsula following 19 hours of 30-mile-per-hour winds. 

 Shrubs farther from the ocean exposed to the same wind velocity and 

 time periods were not damaged. They concluded that salt was the 

 primary cause of deformed coastal shrubs and proposed that these 

 shrubs be called "spray forms" rather than "wind forms", 



Costing and Billings (1942) concluded that Bogue Bank vegetational 

 plant zonation patterns were not due to (a) ;soil moisture, temperature, 

 pH or salt content, (b) air moisture, temperature, or (c) evaporation. 

 They also concluded that salt spray was the only significant factor 

 governing zonation. Costing (1945) stated that salt spray effects were 

 most damaging when storms produced insufficient rain to wash salt from 

 leaves. 



The amount of salt collected from the windward side of the foredune 

 on Bogue Bank was twice as great as at any other side (Costing and 

 Billings, 1942). The crest of the foredune had the second largest 

 amount followed by the crest of the hind dime. The leeward side of the 

 foredune and the base of the hind dune received successively less 

 amounts of salt spray. 



Boyce (1951) showed that significant amounts of salt spray are not 

 derived from the surf because the drops formed are too large to be 

 windborne. Most salt spray particles are from the bursting bubbles in 

 the swash and white caps of small waves (Boyce, 1954) . 



Boyce's (1954) study of the coastal vegetation of Brunswick County, 

 North Carolina, found Iva imhricata (marsh elder) was subjected to an 

 average of 1^00 droplets of salt spray per square centimeter per minute 

 on the windward side and only 490 droplets per square centimeter per 

 minute on the leeward side. The droplets averaged 51 micrometer in 

 diameter windward and 22 micrometer leeward. 



Wells and Shunk (1938) concluded that the concentration of 

 chlorides in salt spray deposited on plant leaves was higher than 



14 



