26 GROWTH OF PLANTS 



weed {Potamogeton pectinatus L.), redhead grass (P. perfoliatus L.), and 

 wild celery (Vallisneria spiralis L.) returned beyond expectation. So by last 

 season the old residents maintained that these plants had returned to 

 abundances that existed before the locks in the canal had been removed. 

 It is regrettable that some scientific agency could not have continued the 

 study of the progressive changes in the flora. About all the opportunity I 

 have had to observe these has been on short periodic visits once or twice a 

 season, but I had no time to make various tests. 



"As to the seeding of the depleted areas, this may be attributed to dis- 

 semination by waterfowl. On the beach strip between the ocean and Pam- 

 lico Sound a few years ago the Fish and Wildlife Service made a large arti- 

 ficial pond by dikes on the sand. This is on what is known as Pea Island, 

 just below Oregon Inlet towards Cape Hatteras, on the sand spit of barrier 

 beach between the two bodies of saltwater. The impoundment filled to a de- 

 sirable depth with rainwater, as there the normal rainfall exceeds evapora- 

 tion. Without any seeding except through the agency of waterfowl a good 

 stand of sago pond weed became established the first season. This could have 

 happened in Back Bay and Currituck Sound, but then we knew nothing 

 about the probable continued presence of dormant seeds in the mud of 

 these waters." 



In a letter under date of August 9, 1943, Bourn further states: 

 "It may interest you further to learn that with the recovery of the plant 

 life in Back Bay and Currituck Sound the black bass, the important game 

 fish, also returned. Now on 'blue bird' days during the duck shooting season 

 when the birds are reluctant to fly without a stimulating wind, sportsmen 

 are accustomed to cast from their shooting blinds and catch a limit of these 

 game fish, the commercial seining of which is no longer permitted in Back 

 Bay and Currituck Sound. So the area may again be thought of as a 'sports- 

 man's paradise,' brought about by the restoration of the locks in the Intra- 

 coastal Waterway." 



Literature Cited 



1. Beale, Helen Purdy, and Mary E. Lojkin, "Quantitative studies on the precipitin 



reaction of the tobacco-mosaic virus-antiserum system," C. B. T. I., 13 (1944): 

 385-410 (1945). 



2. , and Beatrice Carrier Seegal, " N^ormal-tobacco-plant protein and tobacco- 

 mosaic-virus protein as anaphylactogens and precipitinogens in the guinea pig," 

 C. B. T. I., 11 : 441-454 (1941). 



3. Bourn, W. S., "Ecological and physiological studies on certain aquatic angiosperms/' 



C. B. T. I., 4 : 425-496 (1932). 



4. Denny, F. E., "Field method for determining the saltiness of brackish water," 



Ecology, 8 : 106-112 (1927); also in B.T.I. Prof. Pap., 1 : 20-26 (1927). 



5. "Documentary proof of immediately imperative necessity for restoration of lock in 



Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal," 39 pp. (1929), 



6. Hildebrand, E. M., C. H. Berkeley, and D. Cation, "Handbook of virus diseases of 



stone fruits in North America," 76 pp. Misc. Publ. Michigan Agric. Exp. Sta. 

 (May, 1942). 



