426 
Between  Prinsted  and  W.  Itchenor,  as  above 
mentioned,  I  only  saw  three  small  patches  of  S.  stricta, 
one  opposite  Bosham,  one  opposite  W.  Itchenor,  and  one 
about  half-a-mile  south  of  Dell  Quay.  Making  allowance 
for  other  undetected  patches,  it  is  still  true  to  say  that, 
in  comparison  with  S.  Townsendi,  the  areas  which  S. 
stricta  occupies  are  altogether  insignificant.  Its  vertical 
range  also  seemed  more  restricted,  as  all  the  patches  were 
at  about  4  feet  below  mean  high  water  mark.  Mr.  Salmon 
(in  lit.  Oct.  12,  1914)  writes  “  I  think  it  is  quite  clear  that 
S.  Toivnsendi  is  spreading  with  remarkable  rapidity  and 
extraordinary  robustness.  It  is  not,  I  think,  too  much  to 
say  that  it  is  gradually  swamping  S.  stricta.  It  certainly 
seemed  so  this  year  in  Thorney  Island,  where  now  S. 
stricta  is  very  local.  I  am  told,  too,  that  S.  alterniflora 
is  now  much  less  common  than  it  used  to  be  ;  and  at 
Hill  Head,  near  Titchfield,  Hants.,  where  we  saw  it  this 
autumn,  S.  Townsendi  looks  the  eventual  victor.”  Mr.  F. 
Stratton  in  “Journ.  Bot.”  1913,  p.  294,  says  respecting 
the  Isle  of  Wight  stations:  “  Spartina  Townsendi.  This 
plant  is  taking  the  place  of  S.  stricta  on  the  creeks  of  the 
Medina  below  Newport.  In  1867  there  was  only  S.  stricta 
to  be  found  in  these  creeks  and,  I  believe,  elsewhere  in 
the  island.  Now  it  is  difficult  to  find  S.  stricta." 
The  ultimate  effect  of  the  spread  of  these  dense 
beds  of  Spartina  may  very  well  be  to  diminish  the  total 
amount  of  water  flowing  up  and  down  with  the  tide,  and 
so  to  alter  the  conditions  at  the  mouth  of  Chichester 
Harbour.  I  think  I  remember  being  told  (about  1888) 
that  reclamation  on  the  creeks  above  the  Hamoaze  and 
on  the  Tamar  above  Saltash  was  discouraged  on  account 
of  possible  effects  of  this  nature. 
In  1914  I  counted  20  clumps  of  S.  Townsendi  in 
Pagham  Harbour,  on  the  N.E.  side  near  the  Vicarage. 
Pagham  Harbour"  was  originally  formed  by  the  inroads 
of  a  furious  gale  in  A.D.  1345,  but  was  reclaimed  in  1879. 
In  1910  the  sea  breached  the  great  shingle  beach,  and 
reasserted  its  dominion  up  to  the  walls  of  the  garden 
of  Pagham  Vicarage,  and  up  to  Sidlesham  Mill  and  Ferry. 
The  barbed  wire  fences  are  now  festooned  with  marine 
*  See  a  most  delightful  little  article  on  “  Pagham  and  its  Church,”  by  the  Rev.  G.  G. 
Knox,  Vicar  of  Pagham,  in  the  “ St.  Michael’s  Magazine”  for  July,  19x4  (St.  Michael’s 
School,  Bognor). 
