500 
PROTECTION OF DUNES. 
the erection of plank fences, and even of simple screens of 
wattling and reeds.* 
Protection of Dunes. 
The dunes of Holland are sometimes protected from the 
dashing of the waves by a revetement of stone, or by piles; 
and the lateral high-water currents, which wash away their 
base, are occasionally checked by transverse walls running 
from the foot of the dunes to low-water mark ; but the great 
expense of such constructions has prevented their adoption on 
a large scale.f The principal means relied on for the pro¬ 
tection of the sand hills are the planting of their surfaces and 
the exclusion of burrowing and grazing animals. There are 
grasses, creeping plants, and shrubs of spontaneous growth, 
which flourish in loose sand, and, if protected, spread over con¬ 
siderable tracts, and finally convert their face into a soil ca¬ 
pable of cultivation, or, at least, of producing forest trees. 
Krause enumerates one hundred and seventy-one plants as 
native to the coast sands of Prussia, and the observations of 
Andresen in Jutland carry the number of these vegetables up 
to two hundred and thirty-four. 
Some of these plants, especially the Arundo arenaria or 
arenosa , or Psamma or Psammophila arenaria —Klittetag, or 
Hjelme in Danish, helm in Dutch, Diinenhalm, Sandschilf, or 
Hiigelrohr in German, gourbet in French, and marram in 
English—are exclusively confined to sandy soils, and thrive 
* Staring, De Bodem van Nederland , i, pp. 329-331. Id., Voormaals 
en Thans , p. 163. Andresen, Om Klit/ormationen , pp. 280, 295. 
The creation of new dunes, by the processes mentioned in the text, 
seems to he much older in Europe than the adoption of measures for se¬ 
curing them by planting. Dr. Dwight mentions a case in Massachusetts, 
where a beach was restored, and new dunes formed, by planting beach 
grass. “ Within the memory of my informant, the sea broke over the 
beach which connects Truro with Province Town, and swept the body of 
it away for some distance. The beach grass was immediately planted on 
the spot; in consequence of which the beach was again raised to a suffi¬ 
cient height, and in various places into hills.”— Dwight's Travels , iii, p. 93, 
fid., i, pp. 310, 332. 
