Soil-Binders 55 



before it falls. The fruit-roots, branch-roots and stems, 

 together form a tough, closely-woven net-work, in which 

 the mud of the river is caught and entangled, and 

 converted into solid, or something like solid, land, very 

 much more quickly than it would be without their 

 help. 



In Holland, the people have taken a leaf out of 

 nature's book, and carefully plant the sea-dikes, on 

 which the very existence of their land depends, with 

 the ' sharp rush,' whose multitude of roots mat to- 

 gether near the surface, besides striking deep into the 

 soil. 



The horse-tails, too, which thrive there to such an 

 extent that we used to import them under the name 

 of Dutch rushes, have underground stems of extra- 

 ordinary length, and so much interlaced that they 

 seem exactly intended to bind the loose soil. 



Then there is the sea-sedge, an insignificant little 

 grass-like plant, but a few inches high, which does not 

 look capable of much at first sight. But it grows with 

 marvellous rapidity — always an important advantage 

 where loose sand is concerned — and it covers extensive 

 tracts in a very short space of time, sending out, only 

 just below the surface, long, creeping stems, which are 

 firmly pinned down by frequent root-fibres. 



The growth of the sea-reed is even more remark- 

 able. It will grow in the very driest soil, and has 

 been planted in the Hebrides to cure sand-drift. Its 

 runners are often as much as twenty feet long, and 

 so tough and strong that they have been used for rope- 

 making. 



Some quite fragile-looking roots are indeed remark- 

 ably tough, and capable of resisting an immense strain 



