108 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 
they are then thinned, the branches cut off being used for the 
purpose of thatching downs not yet recovered, and the trunks 
and roots cut into pieces and burned to make tar and char- 
coal. These plantations, and others in the sands of Bordeaux, 
and between that city and Bayonne, constitute the principal 
riches of the inhabitants, whose chief means of gaining a live- 
lihood arises from the preparation of resin and tar from these 
pinaster forests. The pinaster consists of numerous varieties, 
all of which grow remarkably well in sand, or in dry, poor 
soil, and endure the influence of the sea better than most 
trees. In wet or fertile soil it is less hardy than in sand; in 
the former its shoots become more succulent, less matured, 
and are thus unable to resist the severity of the winter in 
Scotland away from the influence of the sea. 
Plantations on the West Coast of Scotland.—Throughout the 
islands of the Hebrides the Gulf Stream has a very perceptible 
influence in ameliorating the climate in winter, and adapting 
it to half hardy trees and shrubs in all cases near the sea, 
particularly where plants are exempt from disturbance by the 
prevailing winds, accompanied by salt spray. In such places 
our hardy trees prosper in a manner similar to those in inland 
situations, dependent chiefly on the quality of the soil on 
which they stand. In less favourable situations, where the 
sea is broad, and where a prevailing wind blows over it, the 
most suitable maritime trees only can endure the exposure, 
and the sorts to be employed should be judged of from the 
quality of the soil they are intended to occupy. If it is a dry, 
barren sand, or gravelly soil, the pines should be employed— 
P. maritima, sylvestris, austriaca, laricio or corsicana, and for 
underwood among pines we have montana, pumilio, or mugho. 
Among deciduous trees few kinds succeed in soil of this de- 
scription. The best adapted are the birch, the goat-willow 
(Salix caprea), and the grey poplar, P. alba canescens, which is 
the hardiest of all the white poplars. 
Where the soil is of good quality, either a good, sound, 
sandy loam, or a sandy peat, which is frequently the case 
‘along the west coast of Scotland, all the pines, and also the- 
i 
