IRbofcora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 4 January, 1902 No. 37 



THE OCCURRENCE OF ELEOCHARIS UIANDRA AT 

 BRUNSWICK, MAINE. 



Charles A. Davis. 



In the latter part of July and early August, in 1894, the writer was 

 studying the flora of the vicinity of Brunswick, Maine. Nearly ten 

 years before, while he was a student at Bowdoin College the same 

 region had been, as was thought at the time, very thoroughly studied, 

 but the knowledge and experience gained in the intervening time 

 pointed out that many places of interest existed, which not only had 

 not been examined, but had been avoided as barren, by the student. 



The richest and most profitable collecting ground found at this 

 time proved to be one of these supposed barren areas, namely the 

 banks of the Androscoggin River, between high and low watermarks. 



Those familiar with the coastal region of Maine, know that many 

 of the larger rivers are affected by the tides, for long distances from 

 their mouths, the effects being well marked, up as far as the first fall 

 above the mouth of the stream. This effect is of course not peculiar 

 to Maine Rivers, but because of the fiord-like bays into which the 

 rivers empty and the large volumes of fresh water which they dis- 

 charge, this tidal action in Maine is frequently limited to mere hold- 

 ing back of the outgoing fresh water of the stream, so that twice a 

 day, at high water, the river is broad and deep, and twice a day it 

 becomes shallow and shrinks away from its former limits leaving 

 bare much of its former bed. Since the effect of tidal action is to 

 hold back the fresh water of the stream, we find that in the higher 

 reaches of the tidal action, the water is fresh, and so we have rather 

 broad zones of very wet fresh-water mud- or sand-banks, left along the 



