1920.] 



Scorching ok Folia(;i<: 



479^ 



THE SCORCHING OF FOLIAGE 

 BY SEA-WINDS. 



L. A. Boodle. 



Near the coast, injuries to the leaves of trees and shrubs are 

 often observable after a <]jale from the sea, some of the leaves 

 becoming brown and withered as though scorched. Similar 

 damage is sometimes caused several miles inland in exposed 

 situations. In both cases this effect of the gale is often attributed 

 to the injurious action of salt spray (or particles of salt 

 derived from spray) carried by the wind and deposited on the 

 leaves. 



Evidence of the transport of salt by a strong sea-wind is often 

 supplied by the appearance of a damp salty deposit on the sea- 

 ward windows of houses standing wdth little protection a mile 

 or two from the coast, while, in the case of a violent gale, an 

 appreciable amoant of salt may be carried to a great distance. 

 As an example of the latter occurrence one may refer to observa- 

 tions recorded on the occasion of a great storm which visited 

 Liverpool and various parts of the Kingdom in January, 1839. 

 Ackroyd* states that during this gale ' ' trees and hedges in many 

 places, e.g., Huddersfield and Longton, appeared to be covered 

 with a white frost, which on analysis proved to be a briny deposit 

 which the wind had brought from the Irish Sea." 



The question, however, whether or to what extent salt is 

 responsible for the damage to foliage by sea-winds, is one that 

 is not readily answered. Various writers have discussed this 

 subject, together with the associated one of the cause of the cha- 

 racteristic form presented by trees and woods in proximity to 

 the sea. In the case of isolated trees (which are stunted in pro- 

 portion to the degree of exposure) the shape is asymmetric, the 

 crown being more developed on the side away from the sea, 

 while the side facing the sea shows numerous dead twigs or 

 branches, testifying to repeated injuries on that sidet The 

 configuration of woods adjoining the coast gives similar evidence 

 of injury by winds from the sea, in the dwarfing of the trees 

 nearest the coast, and the gradual increase in height of the trees 

 towards the landward side, where the wood itself gives progres- 



* Ackroyd. Cfmin. Xews, Vol. 84 (1901), p. 50, as quoted by Blacklctlge, 

 An/i. Bot.,\ol. 27, p. 109. 



f The twii^s in some cases may have been killed by frost in winter, as a 

 consequence of the wooil havini^ been insutfieiently '* ripened owini,' to tlie early 

 destruction of the leaves {^Grdbner. Lehrh. d. allqcm. Pfianzrngeographie, 1910, 

 p. 225). 



