Annual Report of the State Botanist 1892 - MykoWeb

8
Report of the State Botanist.
learning seems to me to be a good one. In this way the stu-
dents, by seeing them from day to day, would become familiar
with the general appearance of the species, and would recognize
them at once if they should see the plants themselves growing
in their native places. There would probably be kindled in the
minds of some, at least, an earnest desire to know more of these
interesting and useful ]3lants, and they would thus be led to
acquire a more extended knowledge of them. If the number of
our esculent species should be thought too great for such chart
representation, any desired number of the more common and
important species might be selected for this purpose. If the
outla}' necessary to place charts in aU the district schools should
seem too great, they might be placed at first in the high schools
and academies by way of experiment.
The vegetation that grows so profusely in the shallow water
at the head of Lake Champlain and along its shores and dykes
seemed to me to be worthy of examination. This was given
early in July. Much of the woody growth consists of willows,
of which the most abundant are the black willow, Salix nigra,
the shining willow, 8. lucida, the glaucous willow, S. discolor, the
heart-leaved willow, S. cordata. and the brittle willow, S.fragilis.
AU except the last are indigenous species. The green ash,
Fraxinus viridis, the silver maple, Acer dasycarpum, and the red
maple A. ruhrum, are also plentiful. Although these are
moisture-loving plants, too much water seems to be an injury
rather than a benefit to some of them at least. Their roots and
the soil in wMch they grow are submerged much of the time, yet
the leaves of many of them are unusually small. This was
especially noticeable in the black willow, the shining willow and
the heart-leaved willow. Their peculiar habitat seems also to
retard development. The reddish-brown color of the young
leaves of the heart-leaved willow and the maples was conspicuous
even in July. The spiked loosestrife, Lythrum Salicaria, an
introduced plant which is abundant in the lower part of the
Hudson river valley, was groAving freely in the margin of the
lake. This is a new station for it and the most northern one in
the State, though it is said to grow about the quarantine grounds
of Quebec. The great bullrush, Seir^^u.-; validu.^!, the river club-
rush, Scirj)us fluviatilis, and the sweet flag. Acorns Calainus,