PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY 37 



and terminal clusters of pink flowers whose centers are 

 filled with pink-haired stamen filaments. 



Cuthbertia graminea. Flowers pink, about I/2 in. across, 

 in terminal clusters. Petals 3, sepals 3, stamens 6. Stems 

 3-9 in. tall, growing in tufts. Leaves narrow, 3-6 in. long. 

 Sandy soil. Blooming from midwinter to fall. Fla. to Md., 

 Texas, and Mo. 



Cuthbertia rosea. Taller than C. graminea, and not 

 densely tufted. Leaves few, 3-12 in. long, about ^ in. broad. 

 Fla. to N. C. 



PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY {Pontederiaceae) 

 Aquatic plants. Flowers blue or light purple, 6-lobed, in spikes. 



Water Hyacinth (Genus Eichhornia (Piaropus)) 



The vigor of exotics in a new country is proverbial. The 

 water hyacinth, since its introduction to Florida, has 

 spread so energetically here that newspapers, magazines, 

 and agricultural reports have concerned themselves with 

 it, and money and labor are still spent in the effort to 

 destroy this "million-dollar weed" that obstructs navi- 

 gation. Many of the streams that flow into the St. Johns 

 River become so covered by the plants that no water is 

 visible, and they appear as smooth green lanes winding 

 down to the river — flows of living green, from which 

 masses of the plants, now and then detached, float away on 

 the slow current. 



Acres of water hyacinth in bloom on the water have 

 a beauty that once seen is never ^ forgotten. Although 

 the plants usually grow in water they quickly adapt 

 themselves to muddy shores, and there their leaf-stalks 

 lengthen and lose the inflated, globular form by means 

 of which the plants are buoyed on the water, as by air- 

 filled floats. 



