BLAKENEY POINT IN 1913. 
719 
Though the Sucedas growing in the natural state are not 
thick enough to act as an impenetrable bulwark to the travel of 
shingle, a study of the details of surface relief of the beach 
shews that the bushes tend to amass shingle and raise the level 
of the beach in their immediate vicinity — the main travel being 
by gullies corresponding with gaps in the rows. Suceda is 
evidently a plant with a mission — analogous to that of Psamma 
on blown sand. If it were planted densely enough in a broad 
belt near the top of the beach, the travel of shingle should be 
arrested and the level of the crest raised above the limits of 
even exceptional tides. 
The properties of this plant merit a thorough trial on an 
adequate scale. It is much to be hoped that an opportunity 
may be found for this on the bare and very mobile section of 
the beach near Cley, where the shingle is encroaching on the 
channel and causing trouble of various kinds. The success of 
such an experiment would be important in arresting the im- 
mediate trouble at hand, and it should also have far-reaching 
results, as the method would be adopted on other shingle 
beaches where the economic interests threatened are much more 
considerable than at Cley. Vast sums of money are spent all 
round our coasts on sea walls and other costly protective 
constructions, a very considerable portion of which could un- 
doubtedly be saved if a few simple experiments with suitable 
plants were carried out under proper conditions by competent 
persons. 
It is estimated that a sum of about ,£"400, spread over 5 years, 
would suffice properly to plant with Suceda this half-mile 
section of the beach. 
The Alg,e and other Cryptogamic Plants. 
Though full attention has been given to the physical properties 
and vegetation of shingle, the mud flats and marshes have not 
been neglected. The earlier phases of the salt marsh are mud 
flats occupied by a variety of species of Algae. These have 
been very carefully examined by Mr. A. D. Cotton (of the Kew 
staff) and others, and it is hoped to issue the results of their 
