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NATURE SKETCHES IX TEMPERATE AMERICA 



flowering button bushes which have taken root in the bottom 

 of the pond attract many insects to their blossoms. Then there 

 are the tall sedges which have pushed their way along the margin 

 with the army of other species of plants, each kind crowding 

 the other, while the detritus falling to the earth contributes 



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Dragon-flies at the border of the pond. 



as a land maker. The decaying pond weed vegetation and 

 legions of dying a(|uatic animal life are forming sediment which 

 is gradually filling in the pond. 



From an earlier reed swamp we now view the pond, the reeds 

 and bulrushes standing out in the deeper water. Then follows 

 the reed grass, and toward the shore the cat-tails. This is 

 the pioneer arrangement of plant societies around which the 



