The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



Vol. l FEBRUARY, 1898. No. $. 



THE FLORA OF ARTIFICIAL LAKES IN NORTHERN 



NEW YORK. 



Bj W. W. Rowlee. 



IN a paper recently published in the American Naturalist [31 : pp. 

 690-699; 792-800. Aug., Oct., 1897.] the writer described in some 

 detail the topographic features of Oswego County, N. Y., and 



the influences which that topography has had in determining the 

 distribution of the species of flowering plants of that region. It was 

 pointed out in that paper that most of the streams in the county are 

 sluggish and flow through long stretches of swamps. Here grow 

 many plants that are generally confined in New York State to the 

 shores of larger streams, and beyond the limits of the State occur 

 mainly in the swamps of more southern latitudes. 



In a few places in the county, and indeed throughout that part 

 of the State, dams have been built in order to secure water power for 

 saw-mills. Two of these dams form what are locally known as Jen- 

 nings pond at East Palermo, and "Long Pond" in the southwestern 

 part of the town of Williamstown. The dams in these two cases are 

 made of earth and stone and have retained the water at a fairly con- 

 stant level for many years. It is the effect of the permanent inunda- 

 tion brought about by these dams that I shall attempt to describe here. 



In a survey of these ponds, two very striking features at once im- 

 press one. First, the very small number of species of plants occurring 

 in them, and second, the luxuriance and abundance of the individuals 

 representing each species. 



In both, as indeed in all the ponds of the region, the same 

 species occur. These species grow also in the streams above and be- 

 low the ponds, but in the streams they occur only here and there, 

 their abundance apparently being largely determined by their ability 

 to hold their own against the other plants of the swamp. The 



