334 Sutherland and Eastwood . — The Physiological 
back to that date, but there is reason to believe that it occurred even before 
that time. The older accounts of the Spartan grasses vary much, and 
in Sowerby’s ‘Grasses’ (1861) the opinion is expressed that the plants of 
S. alterniflora , collected near Southampton, were so like S. stricta that they 
could not be regarded in any other light than as intermediate varieties. 
But S', stricta is a fairly constant species showing remarkably few varia- 
tions. Therefore the probability is that the doubtful specimens were 
in reality plants of S'. Townsendii , which in many of its characters is inter- 
mediate between S', stricta and S. alterniflora. Unless the plants were 
examined carefully in situ, and at the flowering season, the appearance 
of this new plant might be overlooked for several years, mixed as it was 
with a very similar species, and growing in places not readily accessible. 
This view would help us to understand better its present extent and 
profusion. 
Townsends Spartan grass has been characterized by its phenomenal 
success on the shelving mud banks along the entire western shore of 
Southampton Water, whence it has spread with amazing rapidity over the 
available and suitable mud flats between Selsey Bill and St. Alban’s Head, 
which form the natural boundaries of the sunken valley of the old Frome or 
Solent River. Here the numerous creeks and estuaries, harbours, and salt 
marshes from Poole to Chichester are well protected, while tertiary forma- 
tions have supplied abundant mud. Again, the various stages of the pro- 
gress eastward and westward have been short and favoured by eddying 
currents, which have helped largely in fruit dispersal. On both sides of 
these limits, where chalk ridges reach the sea, there are extensive stretches 
of shingle beach and cliff, broken by few suitable openings, with the result 
that for the time being the natural spread seems checked. 
The value of this grass in fixing and in reclaiming shifting and 
unsightly mud banks has been recognized, and already attempts have been 
made to utilize it. Plants placed in the Medway have made considerable 
progress ; others have also become acclimatized at both Blakeney Point and 
Wells Marsh in Norfolk. More recently the experiment has been extended 
northwards to the mud flats of the Forth and Don mouth. 
At the present time it is the dominant species in the south of England. 
S. stricta survives in a few quiet backwaters, while A. alterniflora is dis- 
appearing fast before its more vigorous competitor, whose adaptation and 
success may be gauged by a glance across the Spartan beds from Cadland 
to Calshot, or from Lymington Harbour to Hurst Castle Bay. 
It is inevitable that such an extensive and thick vegetation should 
affect the deposition of silt near river mouths, and hence tend towards 
a quicker levelling up. At present there exist no reliable data with regard 
to the rate, but it is hoped that a series of accurate survey measurements 
may be made at different stations along Southampton Water. 
