THE 
HEW PHYTOIiOGIST. 
Vol. XI, No. 3. 
March, 1912. 
[Published March 25th, 1912]. 
THE SHINGLE BEACH AS A PLANT HABITAT, 
By P. W. Oliver. 
[Plate IV and Eight Figures in the Text] . 
N approaching the subject of Maritime Shingle as a Plant 
Habitat, a preliminary and general exploration of the field may 
perhaps be permissible. For, unlike the analogous habitat of the 
sand dune in its relation to vegetation, the shingle beach has largely 
escaped the attention of botanists. On the northern and western 
shores of Continental Europe the wandering dune long ago asserted 
itself as an economic problem of the first magnitude, the solution of 
which was to he reached only by systematic and continuous study 
directed by appropriate state-organised departments. Shingle, 
however, has enjoyed no such treatment—probably because its 
occurrence is a minor episode in the coastal phenomena of the 
countries in question. 
On the British coasts shingle forms a not inconsiderable part 
of the drift which circulates on our shores 1 and the problems which 
arise in connection with it—geological, physical and botanical—are 
no less worthy of study for their own sake than those of the dune; 
whilst the high importance of coastal drift as a defence against the 
wasting ol the shore line has been sufficiently emphasized by the 
recent “ Report of the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion.” 2 
The intention of the present article is not, however, to deal 
with the economic problems involved, but rather to outline the 
general topographical and physical characteristics of shingle beaches 
as an introduction to a more purely botanical treatment of the 
subject. 
1 Not far short of 300 miles of the coast-line of England and Wales 
is lined by shingle. 
5 London,1907. 
