2 Rhodora [January 



shores of the streams. These in their characteristics of soil and 

 drainage are like marshes, but they lack the vegetable debris and 

 stagnation which are found in marshes. They are, in fact, much 

 more like wave-washed beaches in small and shallow lakes in their 

 soil forms, differing from them mainly in the fact that they are less 

 exposed to wind action, and have much more fine material deposited 

 in places where slack water occurs. Small shallow pools are left by 

 the retreat of the tides; mud- and sand-bars are abundant, and those 

 which are exposed longest to the light and air, in summer and 

 autumn, are covered with a rich growth of small plants. These, 

 unless examined carefully, would seem unworthy of attention because 

 of their insignificant size, and also because they are more or less 

 covered by the fine silt brought in by the ever recurring tides. The 

 botanist who is looking for unusual and rare species, will however 

 not leave such areas without careful study, and as the Androscoggin 

 River at Brunswick has all of the features described, many hours were 

 spent in the study of the sand- and mud-bank floras of its shores and 

 many interesting plants were found. Most interesting of all was the 

 finding of the little Eleocharis diandra Charles Wright. This plant 

 heretofore has not been reported from east of the Connecticut valley, 

 and yet at Brunswick it was evidently at home in the muddy sand of 

 the high water areas of a small cove in the shore of the river. Near 

 it in a shallow pool, growing with /uncus filiformis L. and one or two 

 small species of Sagittaria, was Utricularia minor L., until then an 

 unnoticed plant in Maine, and two well marked forms of fsoetes, 

 probably forms of /. echinospora Durien. The fsoetes were common 

 even as far out as the borders of the deep channel of the stream. A 

 more complete study of such tracts, and of these same ones at dif- 

 ferent seasons, would undoubtedly yield a rich harvest of obscure and 

 rare species, for plants of this type of habitat are often very local in 

 distribution but where they do occur they are found in abundance. 

 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 



The Elusive Character of Pogonia pendula. — As supple- 

 mentary to the article on this somewhat transitory plant in Rhodora, 

 ii, 211, a report from Vermont may be of interest. 



Mr. Clifton D. Howe wrote from Burlington on Sept. 12, 1899: 

 " Until three years ago Pogonia pendula had not been reported in this 



