TOPOGRAPHY OF BLAKENEY POINT. 
497 
being mostly in a state of greater or lesser mobility, rarely 
acquires the close continuous turf of plants characteristic of 
ordinary ground. Of this, portions are outside direct influence 
of the tide, whilst the lower slopes on the Marams area have 
not a little in common with the salt marshes, in view of the 
opportunity of continuous colonisation of the advancing fringe 
of shingle from that source. 
Then, contrasting with the main bank, are the laterals whose 
stabilised shingle bears a characteristic vegetation. Between 
the laterals is the long series of little bays occupied by salt 
marshes in various phases of development. Many of these, 
both on the Headland and Marams alike, are of the narrow 
mouth type, and all bear a continuous carpet of halophytes. At 
places, as to the East and West of the Hood (Fig. 1 , p. 489), 
the bays are open and exposed to scour, so that the establish- 
ment of halophytes is much retarded in comparison with those 
protected by L-shaped terminals. 
A very distinct series of habitats forming the principal, if 
not the sole, localities of several of the most interesting plants 
on the same area is what may be termed generically the shingle 
low. These are depressions left between closely juxtaposed 
banks, and occur especially at the convergence of laterals near 
their junction with the main bank. Being accessible to the 
highest tides, a covering of mud is deposited on the shingle. 
In the neighbourhood of sand dunes these lows are liable to be 
cut off from the tide, and to be drifted over with blown sand ; 
this change of substratum modifies the vegetation in the sense 
that several of the original colonists tend to die out, whilst 
new ones make their appearance. 
Finally there are the dunes already referred to, which are 
represented in the nascent state on the sea front of the Head- 
land, and in established series of varying ages by the extensive 
Beacon Hills of the Headland, the Long Hills, and the Hood. 
Here, as with the marshes, hooks, and shingle lows, a great 
stimulus to detailed study arises from the fact that all these 
different sorts of habitats are present in rich series, the 
