Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 185 



heads are of a peculiar misty gray, at the same time so quietly self- 

 obliterating that one turns to a well known patch where he con- 

 fidently expected them to be with a sense of discovery and surprise. 



39. AMERICAN GREAT BULRUSH; MAT-RUSH 



SCIRPUS VALIDUS Vahl 



This bulrush is the most aquatic species of the genus. It is, 

 perhaps, on account of its more aquatic habit that it departs more 

 than a great number of them from the sedge type of stem. For 

 while it is here cylindrical it is in S. americanus and many of the 

 land dwelling species actually triangular, and in a number of leafy 

 species — S. cypiimis, S. lineatus and S. atrovirens, triangular with 

 blunt rounded angles. 



There were many patches about the lake and in the water as 

 follows: A small patch in a longer and denser patch of S. ctmeri- 

 camis at Long Point, and north of the base of Long Point. It is 

 also in the water near the Outlet, and there is a small patch opposite 

 elevator iDond. Near the Ice-houses it runs out far into the water 

 in a long sharp point. There is a patch west of Lakeview hotel. 

 A thin patch runs far out into the lake south of Farrar's on shoals, 

 and still farther out, south of the pond, along the southwest 

 shore of the lake, and in front of Farrar's, though no rushes 

 come to the shore there. At the place where the forest comes to 

 the shore, on the south side of the lake, a patch of these rushes 

 begins about 10 feet from shore, and beyond a patch of S. ameri- 

 canus which fringes the shore. This patch of bulrushes is very 

 thin. At Overmyer's spring S. validus is thin near the shore, but 

 is abundant far out. It also grows on the shore here. There is a 

 •great patch in the water opposite the green boat-house and they 

 grow abundantly far from shore in the Inlet marsh. From Norris 

 Inlet halfway to Norris's they extend far out into the water. The 

 eastern shore — on account of its pebbly and rather steep bottom — 

 is wholly free from them and none is found until the patches in 

 Culver Bay, south of the Academy grounds. One patch here is 

 peculiar, very small, glaucus and soft. The scattered patches here 

 are few, and pretty far out directly in front of the Academy 

 grounds. Bulrushes also grow about the edges of Lost Lake, es- 

 pecially at the entrance of Lake Maxinkuckee Outlet, and they are 

 found in scattered patches on Green's marsh. 



Both S. validus and S. americanus occasionally present culms 

 that grow in the form of a spiral. Because of the absence of mud, 

 the great bulrush is not nearly so common and thick at Lake Max- 



