G2 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
A. hiemalis (Walt.) B. S. P., var. geminata (Trin.) Ilitchc. 
A coiniiion plant, sprawling on the .sand in the wet or the dry dune 
hollows. A. S. Hitchcock in his monograph of the North American 
Species of Agrostis, Bull. Bur. Plant Industry, Ixviii. 43 (1905), 
cites one sheet with awnless spikelets, hut this phase is apparently 
common. //. St. John, nos. \,VU) and 1,365 (H). 
Fl., F/-.— August. 
Ammophila breviligulata Fernald. {A. arcnaria of Am. authors, 
not Link.) Abundant on all the drier parts of the island. Without 
doubt this is the most important plant on the island, for without it 
nothing would stay the erosive action of the wind, the storms, and 
the sea, and in a very short time the whole island would be reduced 
to a treacherous submerged bar, such as now extend out from either 
end of the island for more than fifteen miles. The Beach Grass does 
what none of the hundred odd species planted for this purpose suc- 
ceeded in doing, for in most parts of the island it actually does anchor 
the sand and prevent the dunes from being dissipated by the winds. 
Even the earlier explorers such as Des Barres, mention "a great 
plenty of beach grass" (Atlantic Neptune, i. 68, 1777); in 1801, 
Seth Coleman found the soil of Sable Island, " of a nature to produce 
Beach Grass" (Rept. on Canadian Archives, 91, 1895). John Ma- 
coun (M. p. 215A): "All the sandhills are covered with sandgrass 
(Ammophila) and the wonderful vigour of this grass is well shown 
everywhere, but more particularly where the sand has just been 
deposited, or is in a raw state. I found one underground stem or 
stolon over twelve feet long which had sixty-four series of roots and 
no less than forty-seven tufts of leaves. The growing point was so 
hard and sharp that it might almost penetrate wood." 
Another equally important use of the Beach Grass is that of pro- 
viding the fodder that supports the gangs of wild and semi-domesti- 
cated ponies, as well as the cattle. To one familiar with it in other 
places the Beach Grass would seem like very poor fodder. On the 
sheltered slopes of many of the dunes, it grows here shoulder high, 
deep greeft, and juicy and succulent, so much so that I used to pull 
young shoots and chew them as I plodded over the soft sand and 
forced my way through the tangle of Beach Pea. It seemed to me 
that two factors might jointly or singly explain the unusually tender 
and succulent condition of the Beach Grass here: the cool, very moist 
climate; the regular cutting and harvesting of it as a hay crop over 
