YorkshiTe Xafuralists at Spurn. 



237 



Dr. W. G. Smith writes : — The veg-etation from Withernsea 

 to Spurn Point is sharply divided about Kihisea. Landwards 

 towards Withernsea and Patrington, there is the continuous 

 sheet of boulder-clay. Cultivation occupies most of the area, 

 and the hug-e clods lyiug' unbroken on the summer fallow show 

 that the land requires skill if it is to be fruitful. Woods are few 

 in number, and except in the hedge-bottoms, one misses the 

 woodland plants. The trees, almost without exception, are 

 wind-swept even at a considerable distance from the coast. 

 They present a characteristic sloping- crown, lowest towards the 

 north-east and east, whence evidently come the winds which 

 cut the young- twigs down. The boulder-clay cliffs on the North 

 Sea are distinctly disappointing from the botanical outlook. 

 The coast erodes so fast that only a few plants secure a foot- 

 hold at all. 



From Kilnsea to Spurn Point there is a fine region of 

 maritime vegetation. The striking feature is the difference 

 between the seaward side and the Humber side. The former is 

 fairly uniform. The loose sand is caught and fixed by Marram 

 Grass, Sea Couch, and Sand Sedge, and between the tussocks 

 a low undergrowth (which includes many Leguminosce) still 

 farther fixes the shifting sand. Here the Sea Holly and Volvulus 

 Soldanella play a useful part. On the sand dunes of the Tay 

 (also on the North Sea coast) both have been recorded as rare, 

 but we have failed to find either after many excursions. The 

 relative scarcity of Lyme Grass on Spurn is also noteworthy. 

 The fixed dunes (or links) extensively developed on both sides 

 of the Tay estuary are hardly present on Spurn except round the 

 patches of potatoes and mangold near the lighthouse. Return- 

 ing by the Humber side one finds plants not recorded on the 

 seaward side. These are plants of silt deposits laid down by 

 salt or brackish water under estuarine conditions. Zostera — 

 almost unique as a 'flowering-plant seaweed — is abundant on 

 the wet mud. Suceda and Salicornia, \\\X\\ several species of 

 Atriplex, are conspicuous on drier mud-fiats. If the eroding 

 boulder-clay cliffs w'ere lacking in interest, the part played by 

 plants in building up the Spurn is full of interest. The rolling- 

 sand-dunes are built up and held together by sand-binding plants ; 

 in places where this was not enough to prevent breaching man has 

 substituted erections of brushwood. The level mud-flats have 

 also their binders. The author of the ' Flora of the East Riding ' 

 has already drawn attention to the work of an alga [VaiLcheria], 

 Zostera, and other plants in this direction, and how the reclaim- 



1904 Aug-ust I. 



