DAVIS ON UTRICULARIA CORNUTA MICHX. 53 



NOTES ON UTRICULARIA CORNUTA MICHX. 



CHARLES A. DAVIS. 



The vegetative parts of this jihint are described in Gray's Synoptical 

 P'lora as follows: "Filiform radical shoots apparently none; leaves 

 fasciculate, evanescent, rarely at all seen; scape, etc.'' 



In the paragraph describing the gron-p of species to wliich the plant 

 belongs we find this "Scai)e leatiess and solitary, the base rooting in 

 mild or bog. usually I'ising from or ])rodncing filiform and root like creep- 

 ing shoots which bear slender subulate — gramineous, occasionally sep- 

 tate simple leaves, or branches, which take the place of leaves, to the 

 lower part of which, as also to the colorless shoots bladders are spar- 

 ingly attached, usually fugacious or unnoticed, so that the tlowering 

 plant a]>pears to be a leatiess and naked scape only." Also in farther 

 subdivision for the species under consideration the note "leaves entire, 

 terete; these and the bladders seldom seen.'' P. 310. Vol. 2, Part I. 



In (Jray's Manual the description is as follows: Scape solitary slen- 

 der and naked or with few scales, the base rooting in the mud or soil. 

 The leaves small, awlshaped or grass-like, often raised out of the water, 

 commonly few or fugacious. "Air bladders'' few on the leaves or root- 

 lets, or commonly none. Leaves entire, rarely seen (group descrip- 

 tion, G Ed., p. 37;>). 



Britton and Brown have the following: ''Stems and branches root- 

 like, sometimes with a few entire leaves and few bladders or several; 

 scape rooting in the mud." Illustrated Flora Vol. Ill, p. 189. 



These descriptions are faulty in several particulars and probably are 

 so because of poor collecting and because of the peculiar habits of 

 growth of the plant. It g'rows as I have found it in bogs and other 

 wet places, apparently always in a dense turf with the rootstocks of 

 some of the smaller sedges interlaced with its own stems in such a way 

 that it is practically impossible to find out much about the structure 

 of leaves, stems and bladders. These are very fragile and in the pro- 

 cess of separating them from other plants they are easily destroyed 

 or disappear altogether. The usual way collectors attempt to get 

 specimens of the plant is to take hold of the stout scape and pull. The 

 result is that all the underground parts remain underground and we 

 learn that bladders and leaves are few or wanting or fugaceous by the 

 same act. Last summer I had an exceptional opportunity to study the 

 plant, an opportunity for wliich I had been looking a long time, by the 

 way, and availed myself of it. 



A groujt of plants wa.s found in sand which was not bound together 

 by the roots of any other plant, or by its own underground parts. This 

 was carefully taken up and washed free from sand and the tangled 

 mass was straightened out as far as possible. It was found that not only 

 were the leaves not few, but they were exceedingly numerous and that 

 much of the vegetation forming the "turf" about the base of the scape 

 and for some distance, around it in the ordinary habitat was really 

 formed by the emerged tips of these leaves which exactly resemble 



