116 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 
sea-side, retaining their green and glossy appearance throughout 
the severest winter. In such places the temperature is always 
comparatively high. In the islands of the Hebrides many 
half hardy plants endure the winter in the open ground. In 
the island of Lewis the Auralia japonica ripens its yearly 
growth, and there I have seen the common fuchsia standing 
from six to eight feet high, with a trunk, the growth of many 
years, covered with a rough bark, and more than a foot in cir- 
cumference. 
Among the shrubs most suitable for the sea-side are the 
snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus), sea buckthorn (Hippophae 
rhamnoides), the tamarisk (Myricaria Gallica) and Germanica 
and the evergreen barberry (Berberis aquifolia). In dry soil 
during winter the Laurustine is seldom met with anywhere in 
greater beauty than within the influence of the sea. And as 
an ornamental and efficient dwarf screen-fence for garden 
protection few plants can be turned to better account than 
the common whin or furze (Ulex europaeus). : 
The kinds of trees and plants detailed, the preparation of 
the ground by trenching, the selection of the plants, their 
protection by screen fences, and surface cleaning where herb- 
age is apt to cover the ground and impoverish them, are 
the best means by which sea-side plantations may be estab- 
lished. In such situations, particularly in loose sand, planta- 
tions of the conifere often become of great value in a short 
period, especially in undulated land, where any shelter is 
afforded by the surface rising to some extent between the 
plantations and the sea. Those of Scotch pine are often ripe 
for being thinned for prop-wood at the age of twenty and 
twenty-five years. Timber of this sort is in constant demand 
(see the article on PINE-TREE), and although there are frequent 
discouragements in establishing plantations in the vicinity of 
the sea, yet it should always be borne in mind that as timber 
of this description forms the return cargoes of coal vessels 
along our shores, its value, compared to that of many planta- 
tions, is greatly enhanced by the absence of a long carriage 
from the interior of the country. 
