Seasides and Strand Plants 
These tufts are still separated by intervals of bare 
sand, but as soon as the dune ceases to move percep- 
tibly other plants begin to appear. 
Just behind the crest one finds the sea-holly, 
Eryngium, which has a complicated, auger-like bud well 
fitted to bore its way through the sand. Bird’s-foot 
trefoil and Festuca ovina are also verycommon. Then 
numerous others begin to settle between them ; small 
mosses and lichens, many flowering plants and grasses 
gradually close up the intervals, which changes to the 
short,springy turf which is probably responsible for golf. 
The bent-grass (Psamma) is widely distributed in 
the North Temperate hemisphere. In New Zealand 
(South Island) Mr. Cockayne finds quite a different 
grass (Desmoschcenus spiralis), which nevertheless is a 
sand-dune specialist, and acts in almost the same way. 
Another grass, Spinifex, colonises the sand-dunes in Java.’ 
On certain small sand-dunes at San Vicente near 
Concepcion in Chile, the author found yet another 
grass (Poa bonariensis, Kunth), which also managed to 
grow up through the sand, and binds the dunes 
together with a network of rhizomes. 
On the crests of these sandhills, Euphorbia chilensis, 
Astragalus sp., and other specially adapted plants 
assisted to bind down the sand. The flora was ex- 
ceedingly pretty, for many little slender convolvulus- 
like flowers, some 2 inches long (Nierembergia 
repens), Sisyrhinchium, and two beautiful Alstroemerias 
were dotted about the surface. As the settlement 
becomes closer, one finds Lagurus ovatus (hare’s-tail 
grass), Godetias, Phacelias, and other common Chilian 
weeds. Then small woody shrublets, spiny bushes of 
* On the grey dunes of the Baltic, Aira canescens, A. flexuosa, Helichrysum 
arenarium, Galium mollugo, Hieracium umbellatum, and Artemisia campestris 
are said to be characteristic. 
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