THE PLANT WORLD. 39 



hy tlu'ir roots. The Water Hyacinth {ri(ir<>j>iis f/t/ssipes) whose inva- 

 sion of Fh)i-i(la waters is well known, irrew after the latter manner for 

 many years after its introduction, increasing prodiiriouf^ly by stolons, 

 and rapidly clogiiino- the extensive system of lagoons which constitutes 

 the 8t. John's River. I)Ut at length, in the sununer of 1896, there 

 came about a marvelous change. As if animated by a consciousness 

 that there was need of more room, or of increased food supply, the com- 

 pacted hyacinths, covering tens of thousands of acres, so to speak, left 

 the lakes and creeks of the upper 8t. Johns, and started for the lower 

 reaches of the river, where for a hundred miles it varies from one to 

 live miles in width. Down they came by millions and hundreds of 

 millions. Twice a day they were headed back I)y the tides, hence their 

 i)r()<'ress was slow. The wind and varying; currents caused continual 

 changes in the positions of the plants, which were as interesting to 

 watch as the transformations in a kaleidoscope. For an hour there 

 would be a solid mass of them stretching a hundred miles from shore, 

 when a changing current would transform what appeared like a green 

 meadow into a huge cape; then this would break up into islands, some 

 moving up and some down, according to their positions in the river. 

 Then the plants would disperse, and at slack water the river would 

 present the ap})earance of a shallow grassy lake. Hundreds of miles of 

 shore were banked deep with drifts of decaying plants. All other 

 aquatic and littoral })lants were exterminated. Beds of stout rushes 

 and leathery irrasses were shaved ofl' as l)y a scythe. Snakes came 

 along with the mud-laden ],)lants, and no one thought of bathing in the 

 river. Small Ijoats were blockaded, and it w^as difficult to navigate the 

 river with l)oats large or small. .Jacksonville, a city of 30,000 inhab- 

 itants, was in a state of alarm. It was expected that the Hyacinths 

 would increase from year to year, and many feared that the river 

 would thus l^ecome closed to navigation, while the decay of the plants 

 might reasonably be expected to cause sickness. The next winter 

 Conirress took action in the matter, and there was no end of discussion, 

 investigation and exjjerimentation. By the end of fall all the hy- 

 acinths were either rotting on shore or swallowed up by the ocean. Jt 

 was fully exi)ected that the following year wouhl witness another 

 hyacinth invasion more formidable than the tirst, but that ^ear had in 

 store another and most agreeable surprise, for scarcely a plant was 

 seen on the river, nor has there been since. Something has arrested 

 the increase of llic hyacinth, and it has been urged, apparently with 



