54 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 
Lepturus incurvatus, Europe.—Abundantly naturalized on sands in the 
Auckland Province, but of trivial value. 
Elymus geniculatus, lyme grass, Europe.—Of equal value with the marrem. 
Stenotaphrum glabrum, buffalo grass.—Increased by seed and cuttings, ete. ; of 
stout procumbent habit, and producing a large yield of nutritious herbage. 
Tt would ultimately prove- advantageous to the Colony if a small portion 
of the money now being spent on publie works could be applied to the 
reclamation of sand wastes. The magnitude of the evil to be remedied is 
admitted by all who have paid the slightest attention to the subject. In several 
localities the natives are compelled, year by year, to abandon their cultivations 
as the sand-wave advances, and settlers are helpless witnesses of the destruction 
of their paddocks from the same cause. Fences, large trees, and patches of 
bush, have been overwhelmed within the memory of settlers of comparatively 
recent standing, and, in some cases, still more serious injury must result unless 
preventive measures are taken. The danger is not confined to any one district 
or province ; it is general, and demands prompt attention. 
While much can be done with the means already at command, there can 
be little doubt that other plants, both indigenous and ехойс, would prove 
available on actual experiment, and some species may be found to possess 
greater value than many of those at present known. 
The work of reclamation in this Colony is greatly facilitated by the 
favourable nature of the climate, which allows the employment of many кш 
not available for the purpose in other countries. 
It must be confessed that such localities as the Waikato Heads, and some 
parts of the Kaipara sand-hills, are caleulated to produce an impression of 
man's inability to cope with nature; but, if we look at what has been 
accomplished with more slender resources than those now indicated, it will be 
seen there is abundance of encouragement. In the Gulf of Gascony immense 
wastes of trackless sand were utterly destitute of vegetation, and during 
violent storms exhibited a complete change of surface, hills becoming valleys 
and valleys taking the place of hills, the sand being gradually carried into the 
interior and covering cultivated fields, villages, and entire forests. This 
process of devastation has been completely arrested, and thousands of acres of 
former sand-waste now yield a handsome revenue, and support a considerable 
population. To arrest the process of destruction now to be seen in so many 
localities in this Colony is an object for which we may well venture to 
encounter the possibility, the probability even, of repeated failures in the 
certainty of ultimate success. 
