REEDS 



but as soon as it is put in its natural element again it is 

 seen to have a thin flexible stem along which there are circles 

 of curved, finely divided leaves. Watch it in the water and 

 one is filled with astonishment at the perfection of the shape, 

 arrangement, and character of the leaves, which enables them 

 to hold their place even when a flood may cover them with 

 an extra twenty feet of water ! The same sort of leaf, 

 but with great difference in detail, is found in the submerged 

 Water Crowfoot, Water Milfoil, Potamogetons, and others 

 which live under the the same conditions. 



If it were the St. John's River, we might see that extra- 

 ordinary Florida Hyacinth which has swollen, gouty-looking 

 leaf-stalks, and grows with such extraordinary rapidity that 

 it covers the whole surface of rivers, choking the paddle- 

 wheels of steamers and destroying the trade in timber, for no 

 logs can be floated down when it covers the water. Its 

 rosettes float on the surface, and are very interesting to 

 examine. If you upset one or turn it upside down in the 

 water, the " buoys "''* or swollen stalks act as a self-righting 

 arrangement, and it slowly returns to its proper position. 



But in most rivers, one is certain to come across back- 

 waters where it is impossible to force a boat through on 

 account of the reeds and other marsh-plants. 



There are places on the Danube where hundreds of square 

 miles are occupied by waving masses of the feathery-plumed 

 Phragmites, almost to the exclusion of any other sort of 

 vegetation. Giant specimens of it eighteen feet high have 

 been observed. 



The same reed occurs in North and South America and 

 far up towards the Arctic regions. At first sight it seems 

 as if this was a mistake of Nature ; why should so much of 

 the surface be occupied by this useless vegetable ? But it is 



O 209 



