156 A MANUAL OF FARM GRASSES 



stachys with the branchlets flattened on one side. The 

 bamboos above mentioned form masses with numerous 

 slender stems thickly covering the ground and rising to a 

 height of 6 to 20 feet. The common bamboo (Bambos 

 Bambos (L.) Wight; Bambusa vulgaris Wendl.) is 

 grown in southern Florida and southern California. 

 The stems of this grow to a height of 50 to 80 feet and 

 the base of the stem may be 4 to 6 inches in diameter. 



SAND BINDERS 



The term sand binder is applied particularly to plants 

 that are able to hold the surface of drifting sand and are 

 used on the bare hills of sand known as shifting or 

 moving sand dunes. Such dunes are found in the vicinity 

 of sandy seacoasts and great lakes and along our larger 

 rivers especially in arid regions. Much has been done 

 in Europe to reclaim these barren sand dunes but in this 

 country such work has been done on a large scale only 

 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Golden Gate Park, San 

 Francisco, and in a few minor localities along the Pacific 

 Coast, the Columbia River in eastef'n Oregon, and the 

 shore of Lake Michigan. The only grasses found satis- 

 factory for this work are the beach or marram grass 

 (Ammophila arenaria (L.) Link) a native of the seacoast 

 of Europe and A. breviligulata Fern, of North America 

 from New England to North Carolina and along the 

 Great Lakes. To protect an area of drifting sand, 

 pieces of beach grass with rootstock attached are planted 

 a foot or two apart. Full information on the subject of 

 sand binders and reclaiming sand dunes will be found in 

 two bulletins from the United States Department of 



