246 A NATURALIST IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION 



than anywhere else. There are stretches where the traveler 

 catches glimpses of the carpet of brilliant and varied blossoms 

 that once spread far and wide and of the teeming animal life 

 that accompanied the prairie plants. It well repays the effort 

 to trace the evolution of the prairie and to become acquainted 

 with the typical plants and animals of this prairie association 



in as favorable localities as 

 are at present available. 



Shoreward from the rush 

 zone in those lakes or por- 

 tions of lakes that are devel- 

 oping into prairie there comes 

 a broad zone occupied by 

 sedges and grasses. The cat- 

 tail zone* is omitted. This 

 sedge zone is more or less 

 completely inundated in the 

 high-water stages of early 

 spring, but in the summer 

 may be reasonably dry. Here 

 such sedges as Carex aquati- 

 lis, C. conjuncta (Fig. 349), 

 C. cristata (Fig. 350), C, lupu- 

 liformis (Fig. 351), C. riparia, 

 and C. stricta (Fig. 352), 

 FIG. 360 Smartweed, Polygonum together with some of the 



lapathifoliu 



rushes of the preceding zone, 



are found. The Carexes are grass-like plants usually with 

 triangular stems. There are very many species, a few of 

 which may be recognized by the figures. Gray's Botany will 

 be needed to determine the many others. Such grasses as 

 the following are distinctive. They are named in the order 

 of their appearance from the outer edge of the zone shore- 

 ward: slough grass (Fig. 353), blue-joint grass (Fig. 354), 

 fowl meadow grass (Fig. 355), switch grass (Fig. 356), thin 



