24 Rhodora [JANUARY 
plant was “just coming into bloom.” We had expected to go from 
Brookline to Douglas by automobile, but the freezing weather of the 
preceding night rendered a motor trip somewhat unattractive, so we 
went by train and drove from the station in Douglas to the northern 
end of the pond. All the vegetation of the sandy beach was blackened 
by frost, but searching on our hands and knees among the shriveled 
remnants of Feria, Ilysanthes, etc. we soon found a dried and fruiting 
plant of Sclerolepis within a stone's throw of the northern end of the 
pond — about one mile north of the Rhode Island line. Prolonged 
search revealed no more of the plant on the dry beach, but after 
giving up the hunt and starting upon a circuit of the pond we were 
delighted to find Sclerolepis green and in all stages of development from 
young bud to mature fruit in a spring-rill (also in Massachusetts) 
upon the northeastern shore. After tbat little of the plant was found 
upon the eastern shore, but on making our way over and amongst 
the granitic boulders which strew the western shore we came upon it 
in great quantity at every spring and seepy bank among the boulders. 
Such stations, with Sclerolepis the only green and flowering plant at 
this late date, were found at frequent intervals along the entire length 
of the western shore, in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. "The 
point which struck us was that, although abundant in and around 
springs and often completely submersed, Sclerolepis was nowhere seen 
in rapidly flowing streams. 
'The abundance of the plant about Wallum Pond, which is a clear 
sheet of water with a clean beach of granitic gravel and sand, suggests 
the probability that search about other such ponds — which are 
numerous — in Worcester County and the eastern section of Massa- 
chusetts as well as in eastern Connecticut, will show Sclerolepis to be 
more generally distributed than we know. It is highly probable 
that the late flowering season of the plant — after most plants of 
such shores are past maturity — has -prevented its detection, but 
from our experience at Wallum Pond we should advise watching for 
the plant in September and early October. Superficially Sclerolepis 
suggests the Mare's Tail, Hippuris vulgaris, or a very attenuated 
Aster nemoralis with tiny flesh-cclored heads.— M. L. FERNALD. 
Volume 18, no. 156, including pages 241 to 269 and title-page of volume, was 
issued 19 December, 1911. 
