524 
VEGETATION OF BLAKENEY POINT. 
of very small extent, and forms an excrescence on the side of 
the main bank some one-and-a-third miles from its distal 
termination at the Lifeboat House; this, like the “Long Hills," 
is also a late phase, and is designated by the name of “ The 
Hood.” 
The Blakeney dunes, although they do not furnish us with 
any of the final stages in sand fixation, are of great interest as 
affording a striking series from the first small heap of sand 
collecting around a single plant of Marram grass to the semi- 
fixed condition on which numerous species compete with one 
another. 
(a) The Headland. 
The main system comprises several parallel series, which 
increase in height as we pass away from the sea front, and 
finally reach a maximum as a more or less continuous ridge 
(the Beacon Hills), whence the general slope is at first some- 
what steep, followed by a gradual fall to the margin of the 
Pelvetia Marsh, thus forming a more flattened and relatively 
sheltered expanse on the leeward face (Fig. 7). A search on 
the flat beach, where the youngest stages are in progress of 
development (Cf., Fig. 14), reveals Psamma seedlings about 
which the sand has only just begun to collect in miniature 
kite-shaped heaps, the long tapering tails of which swing to and 
fro with each change in the direction of the stronger winds. 
Even the most advanced in this first series are not more than 
one or two feet in height, and support a flora which consists 
exclusively of Psamma. The outward edge marks the limit of 
normal tide action, and in consequence a region of drift 
accumulation. 1 ' It is here that we find in the greatest abundance 
plants characteristic of dune faces, such as Cakile maritima 
and Salsola Kali; here, too, where sand meets shingle, Arenaria 
peploides and Atriplex hast at a are frequent, the former some- 
times acting as a sand collector and producing sand hummocks, 
but which unless colonised by the Marram grass do not reach 
any further stage. 
15. The central figure in Fig. 14, is standing on the drift line beside an inlet of 
the sea between the ranges of young dunes. 
