232
BLAKENEY POINT, NORFOLK
that the dwindling noted is a normal preparation for the next
succession.
   The marsh is worth inspection, if only to see Fucus limicola in its prime. It may be remembered (see p. 172) that this seaweed becomes bedded in the mud, and is most active in promoting accretion. The vertical growth of this marsh (which is just covered by the neap tides) was found to be approximately
   inches per annum in 1914 and 1915, whilst the high loss on ignition (8.4 per cent of the dry weight) points to a considerable richness of the soil in humus.
   Pari passu with the advance of the Samphire Marsh, and doubtless causally related with it, is the colonization of the ground between the Hood and the western bank of the Marams, on which the Watch House stands. Up to 1910 Salicornia was present in moderate amount at the corners where the Hood and Watch House banks, respectively, join the main shingle beach. Since that date the plant has spread much as on the Samphire Marsh, so that now (1917) a broad continuous belt of green here runs parallel to the beach.
   Only a few years ago this portion of the Blakeney area was notorious for its soft and treacherous mud, the character of which will be appreciated when it is explained that it was considered a good joke on some pretext to get an unsuspicious stranger to attempt to cross the slough.
   The Main Beach from the Long Hills to the Watch House. —This portion of the beach, though exceptionally rich in Sea Poppy (Glaucium luteum), is, on the whole, relatively poor in the more persistent beach plants, such as Suceda fruticosa, Silene maritima, and Arenaria peploides (Plate X, 1, p. 98). It is divided by the Hood into two sections, very similar in nature and of approximately equal length. Both sections are exposed to the open harbour on the lee (south) side, and when the wind blows from the direction of Morston and Stiffkey, i.e. from the south-west, the waves at high tide disturb the shingle a good deal, and make it difficult for Suceda fruticosa to establish on the fringe. This probably accounts for the almost entire absence of this plant from the middle portions of the two open embay-ments west and east of the Hood. However, since the Samphire