ARUNDO ARENARIA.{*«.k»/.
Sen Mat-grass.
Spec. Char. Panicle spiked; calyx with one floret; leaves rolled up, and glaucous:
T his Arondo is entirely a maritime plant, and neyer found but in loose driving sands, or in such
places which were originally o f that nature: its characters are so strong that, with a very little attention,
it will always be known from every other associating plant.------ This Mat-grass is one o f . those ordinations
o f nature, the immediate use of which we are permitted to know, and whose virtues are within
the level o f our comprehension: vegetating in a peculiar situation, it stems the torrent of an inundation
of drifting sand, little less destructive than the fury of the sea, and at its roots “ the proud
waves are stayed; ’ and whoever has attended to the coasts of the sea, must be fully sensible of what has
been saved by this plant. The roots of this Mat-grass being o f a woody nature, have been by the dwellers
on some of our maritime shores collected for fuel, and the consequences have been ruinous; the wind
catches the sand, and finding no impediment, pours it in one continued stream over the adjacent
- country, and as long as that wind continues, the sand flies, and in dry weather, and during strong
gales, even to the endangering o f animal life: nearly the whole parish of Furvie, in Aberdeenshire,
has thus been destroyed, to the loss o f one family o f perhaps 3001. per annum; and at Foires, in the
county of Elgin, this inundation has been so great and continued, that houses and trees are buried
from the sight: upon one part o f the coast o f Notfblk it almost alone resists the fury o f the German
ocean: neither are these solitary iratences; and so early was the utility of the Sea Mat-grass known,
that in the 2? th o f Elizabeth an agtwas passed to prevent the pulling up of 'this plant, and to encourage
its growth; nor did our legislature lose sight of that salutary ordination, but again in the
15th o f George the Second prohibited the destroying of Mat-grass.
That this plant was designed entirely as a fetter to the driving sands there is much reason to conjecture:
it vegetates and flourishes with vigour in the drifts, and as the sands become fixed, it pines
away almost in gradations, or is, supplanted from the soil; and when its great and important end is
effected, it ceases to be found.------ In some places the poor people make use of the foliage of this
plant, applying them like rushes to the construction o f a coarse kind of matting.
A, the Calyx.
B, the valves o f the Corolla.