PLANT STUDY AT SANDUSKY BAY.
Harriet G. Burr.
To one whose work has not included collecting and study in such surroundings as Sandusky Bay affords, the revelation of even a few days here is worth a great deal. The marshes about Sandusky, the rocky islands, the sand dunes at Cedar Point, the “prairie” in the direction of Castalia, all offer valuable work to the student of ecology.
But during the week spent at the Lake Laboratory last August it was in study of the water plants of the Bay that I found the greatest interest. The collecting is after a manner novel to the “land lubber.” The collections, carried back to the Laboratory for study, have the fascination of the unusual, for represented among them are families more or less unfamiliar to general students.
A collecting trip for water-plants usually takes one across the Bay among the bulrushes and wild rice along Cedar Point. Here from the sides of the boat we look down into a wilderness of strange forms through the clear water. The curious eel-grass, with its perfect spirals, Myriophyllum and Chara, Philotria, Utricularia, and the Potamogetons spread out upon the surface among the lily-pads around us, are among the most conspicuous. A few minutes collecting here is productive of results quite out of proportion to the time spent. Many of these plants, at the time of my visit, had lifted themselves to the surface and bore their inflorescence above the water. Among these were some of the Potamogetons, Utricularia, Philotria, and others. A marigold looked strangely out of place on the surface of the water—it was the Bidens Beckii in bloom. The American Lotus lifted its head conspicuously above its lesser neighbors. Some minute, light-colored, fluffy masses, floating far out in the Bay, we decided to be the pollen of the Vallisneria.
I have said nothing of the Algae; the most of my work at the Laboratory, however, was with these forms. Many kinds are common and many more may be obtained by seeking for them. These types of plant life, in beauty of form and importance of study rivaled by none, repay much time spent upon them.
The collecting and study of only a week here—a week, too, of recreation rather than of work—was but a suggestion of what might be done, though one which proved quite powerful. From our landing at Cedar Point was visible, for a long distance out, the bright pink of a Swamp Rose Mallow. It typified the week’s work, it was a suggestion, too, of other strangers which might be lurking behind those trees and among those vines and undergrowth. We found that the suggestion was not a vain one, and in following it out we were never disappointed.