especially pines, larches, and silver birches: all these are very common on the Surrey sands, willows also grow in the damp places. Fig. 48 shows a Surrey heath--Blackheath--with heather, gorse and bracken; with pine-woods in the distance and everywhere some bare patches of sand. Much of the New Forest is on the sand, as also is Bournemouth, famous for its fine pine woods. Fig. 49 is a view of such woods on Wimbledon common. But elsewhere there is no wood: the peasants burn the turf, and so you find their cottages have huge fireplaces: instead of fences round their gardens or round the plantations there are walls made of turf. Such are the Dorchester heaths so finely described by Hardy in _The Return of the Native_ and other novels. Other sands, however, are covered with grass and not with heather, and many of these have a special value {108} for golf links, especially some of the dry, invigorating sands by the seaside. The famous links at St Andrews, and at Littlestone, are examples. [Illustration: Fig. 49. Woodland and heather on light sandy soil, Wimbledon Common] In between the fertile and the barren sands come a number that are cultivated without being very good. They are much like the others, carrying a vegetation that is usually of the narrow leaved type (p. 72), and not very dense. On the road sides you see broom, heather, heath, harebells, along with gorse and bracken with milkwort nestling underneath: crested dog's tail and sheep's fescue are common grasses, while spurrey, knotwood, corn marigold, are a few of the numerous weeds in the arable fields. Gardens are easily dug, but it is best to put into them only those plants that, like the native vegetation, can withstand drought: vegetable gardens must be well manured and well limed. Fig. 50 shows some of this kind of country in Surrey, the barley field is surrounded by wood and very poor grass on the higher slopes. [Illustration: Fig. 50. Poor sandy soil in Surrey, partly cultivated but mainly wood and waste] It is easy to travel in a sand country because the roads dry very quickly after rain, although they may be dusty in summer. Sometimes the lanes are sunk rather deeply in the soft sand, forming very pretty banks on either side.