176	PLANT WINNING OF TIDAL LANDS
sionally Obione overruns a whole marsh, and in virtue of its size and density obliterates the other plants (Plate XVI, 2). It is a perennial, and its prostrated branches root from the nodes the second spring. The branches being brittle become detached easily, and are apt to lodge and root elsewhere. Seedlings are also formed, but appear in quantity only in occasional years. The reason for its rather striking preference for the banks of creeks has not been ascertained. This plant contributes much material to the tidal drift; its ash is rich in potash. A trailing specimen is represented in fig. 43.
   Grasses.—The most widely distributed of all salt-marsh grasses is Glyceria maritima. On Salicornia marshes it follows the pioneer, gradually establishing a turf. It forms the general matrix of most high marsh, and is of value for grazing in the later phases. The closeness of its texture and its capacity to grow through make it a most efficient accretor of silt (Plate XIV, p. 166).
   On sandy marshes it often occurs as a pioneer forming hummocks. Here, and on other surfaces which it covers, it arrests the silt and continues its peripheral growth.
   Festuca ovtna v. rubra is another grass found on the higher levels of the salting, and especially on banks and beaches liable to occasional tidal inundation. It has great value in holding the ground; also for pasture.
   Triticum pungens likewise occurs on the higher levels, and is perfectly halophytic.
   Spartina Tmvnsendii is a grass of particular importance, and claims the attention of all who are interested in the utilization of salt marshes. Being of recent apparition, and its potentialities not yet fully gauged, we deal with it here at some little length. The existence of this plant first attracted general attention when Lord Montagu of Beaulieu reported on its occurrence in 1907 to the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion.1 Having property on the Solent between the Beaulieu River and Lymington, Lord Montagu had witnessed the early colonization and gradual spread of Spartina Tovmsendii (known locally as “ Rice Grass”) over the tidal flats till it had come to occupy
    1 Royal Commission on Coast Erosion and the Reclamation of Tidal Lands, Minutes of Evidence, Vol. I, 11290-300, 11341-62.