DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 49 



THE NEW ARTESIAN WELL. 



As previously intimated, there has for many years often been trouble in 

 securing a perpetual supply of good water for keeping the ponds full and 

 the bogs in good condition; besides, the engineer was annoyed in coming 

 to our aid every little while to remedy the evil, if it were possible to do so. 



Very much to my satisfaction, during April of this year, the State Board 

 employed Packard & Edgerton to drive a three-inch well with galvanized 

 iron pipe into the rock below. The whole depth from the surface of the 

 upper pond was 177 feet and 4 inches. The water will rise in the pipe a 

 little over five feet. The supply is abundant and satisfactory. 



THE JUNE FRESHET, j ■ 



Twenty-four hours preceding the morning of June 6th, 5.82 inches of 

 rain had fallen, causing the highest water during the growing season of any 

 in at least thirty-five years. When the snow and ice melted the year pre- 

 vious, the water rose in the botanic garden from four to five inches higher 

 than it did this year. A heavy freshet when plants are resting in cold 

 weather does little if any harm, but many plants succumb when they are 

 submerged for three or four days during the growing season. A large pro- 

 portion of the garden was from a foot to two feet under water for over three 

 days. Some damage was done by strong currents of water. Nearly all 

 plants were checked in growth and were left in forlorn condition, sprawl- 

 ing on the ground and covered with dingy sediment. Of the 2,200 kinds 

 of plants, 243 were killed, saying nothing about a large number that were 

 nearly killed, and many more that were rendered unsightly by the pro- 

 longed application of muddy water. The aquatics were not injured. It 

 was interesting to note that the leaf-stalks of Potamogeton natans during 

 the days of the high water had increased their length eight to twelve inches, 

 and the stems of white water lilies had elongated twenty to thirty inches, 

 all in the attempt to keep the leaf-blades and flowers at the surface of the 

 water. 



Before the high water had retreated, plans were already made to pre- 

 vent a recurrence of another disaster of this kind. The scheme is, briefl}^ 

 to plant on low land nothing that will not endure a summer overflow, and 

 to raise all other land, if not already high enough, to high water mark or 

 above it. 



THE HERBARIUM. 



* The additions that have been mounted and installed during the year 

 past are here enumerated: 



SEED PLANTS, FERNS, AND THEIR ALLIES. 



Elias Nelson, Species of Antenaria 13 



Home Collections 143 



156 



♦Collections still on hand and not installed nor yet reported in inventory (about 2,500) to appear 

 in next report. 



7 



