78 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



in Bristol. It covers fifteen acres and perhaps more, and is 

 of unknown depth. I have material brought up from a depth 

 of 10^ feet, showing seven feet thickness of diatoms to this 

 point, which probably continues down several feet more, but 

 we could get no farther down on account of the rapid inflow 

 of water. This deposit is remarkable as containing the beauti- 

 ful little CycIotcUa antiqua, which has never before been found 

 in this country as far as I can ascertain. I have sent speci- 

 mens to the most experienced collectors but none of them had 

 ever seen it before. This Bristol form is more beautiful than 

 any of the European specimens that I have seen. 



All these fossil deposits, the ponds and streams mentioned, 

 and many others contain hundreds of species, a full description 

 of which would require a large volume ; a mere list of their 

 names would cover many pages. Very many of these are 

 among the most remarkable and beautiful of the fresh water 

 varieties. The filamentous kinds are found nearly everywhere 

 in Bristol, and the species are very numerous. They resemble 

 the Algae, except that they are brown instead of green, and 

 each joint or cell is an individual orianism with an independent 

 life of its own. — W. A. Terry, Bristol, Conn. 



Habenaria Leucophaea. — Another apparent effect of 

 the wet season has been the unusually large number of fringed 

 orchis on the prairies of central Illinois. This orchid is a 

 moisture-loving plant, and lives in the low prairies where the 

 soil retains the moisture, in company with Phlox glaberrima, 

 Asclcpias Sullivantn and other such plants. It is generally 

 very rare, and the collector may consider himself lucky who 

 finds more than one plant in bloom in a season. This summer, 

 however, it has been rather abundant, and probably a hundred 

 plants bloomed in this vicinity. This does not mean that there 

 have actually been more plants this year than usual, but merely 

 that more of them have bloomed. 



