84 Rhodora | Marcu 
judge, somewhat below, or certainly as low as its summer level. If 
indeed, the water had been a very little higher, nearly all the plants 
of Echinodorus would have been partly or wholly submerged. 
We first found very small plants growing on the shore in soft mud. 
These showed occasional flowers and much fruit, as might have been 
expected at this season of the year. Afterwards we found larger 
terrestrial plants, and submersed plants also, the latter growing often 
nearly a foot under water. Thus a good opportunity was given for 
observing the plant in its various forms. Certain of its characters 
omitted from botanical descriptions seem worthy of record here. 
Many of the terrestrial plants, especially those not far from the 
water’s edge, showed traces of decaying leaves at the base of the 
fresh green lanceolate or spatulate leaves mentioned in all the 
descriptions. By tracing plants to the water it was found that these 
decaying leaves were the remains of their pellucid, membranous 
phyllodia, which are the submersed primary leaves of the plant. 
These phyllodia form almost its entire foliage until through lowering 
of the water level the plant emerges, when they soon decay. The 
secondary or terrestrial leaves, which have already begun to show 
themselves while the plant is in shallow water, then rapidly develop. 
When fresh, the phyllodia are lance-linear, tapering to a point, 2 to 3 
cm. long and 2 to 3 mm. broad, with no distinction of blade and 
petiole. So far as I am aware these submersed leaves have not been 
definitely mentioned in descriptions of this plant, except in the first 
edition of Gray’s Manual, where, however, under the name Æ. subu- 
latus, Engelm., the species was confused with Sagittaria pusilla, Nutt. 
In one part of the pond Fchinodorus was growing in a depth of 
from half a foot to a foot of water on a cleaner, more sandy bottom. 
Here it was easy to study the plants in their submersed form. Not 
only were the phyllodia, I have mentioned, conspicuous, but also the 
creeping and proliferous character of the shoots. A number of 
colonies of three or four connected plants were observed. Here I 
was surprised to find also a number of plants with fresh, newly 
opened flowers some distance under water. Although Æchinodorus 
does not appear to be so true an aquatic as .Subu/aria it seems that 
it does sometimes bloom in its submersed state. How constant 
this character is, may be a good subject for investigation. It is 
certain the plant normally develops its flower buds sometimes in a 
depth of water that practically permits little chance for aérial anthesis. 
