798 The American Naturalist. [September, 



giniana and many others also grow here. As might be ex- 

 pected, it is a flora made up of species which are by no means 

 confined to this particular place. Some of them flourish 

 equally well upon the surrounding uplands ; a few grow in 

 the open moor; many grow in low grounds that do not have 

 the vegetable accumulations characteristic of these swamps. 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SPECIES WITH THE MATURING OF THE 



BOG. 



The rareness of some of the bog plants attest the gradual 

 disappearance of species from these places. Specimens of 

 Listera austmlis were found by Father Wibbe at the Lily Marsh 

 in New Haven in 1877, where he reported it as growing abund- 

 antly." The writer has visited the same place several times 



^Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, YI, 192. 



since 1(^88, and has failed to find it again. It is safe to say 

 that it is not abundant there now. A few plants were found 

 by the writer in " Granny's Orchard," in Palermo, in 1895. 

 Here continued and careful search resulted in the finding of 

 but a few plants. Dr. W. M. Beauchamp has found the same 

 species "growing at Mud Lake near Baldwinsville, Onondaga 

 County. Here, too, only a few specimens were found. These 

 are, so far as known, the only stations for this species north of 

 New Jersey. It is significant that a considerable number of 

 species, not only those that affect bogs, but some Upland ones, 

 have the same general range as Listera australis. The most 

 conspicuous of these are : Rliexia virginica, Nyssa aquatica, Erio- 

 caulon septoMgulare, Triglochin maritima, Xyris montana, Scheu- 

 clizeria 'palustris and several of the Utricularias. It seems a rea- 

 sonable inference that formerly there existed in these regions 

 conditions much more congenial to these plants; that then 

 they were more abundant and continuous in their range than 

 now, and that the}' have settled in the limited tracts which 

 afford them a congenial home. The conditions which conduce 

 to their persistency are no doubt complex. The main ones, 

 however, seem to be a constant and abundant humidity in the 

 air and abundant moisture in the soil, and, at the same time, 

 a relatively even temperature throughout the year. Humidity 



