FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



Marsh plants, or Helophytes as they are called, are unlike aquatic 

 plants in that though their roots grow in water-logged soil in which 

 there is 80 per cent of water, yet their stems are never quite sub- 

 merged and are usually erect, many aquatic plants being submerged 

 and lying on the surface of the water. They usually grow in shallow 

 water, if submerged at all, and in still or but little disturbed water. 



Most of the marsh plants are perennials, and a large number have 

 creeping rhizomes, such as Phragmites or Reed, Reed Mace, Iris, 

 Yellow Flag, Flowering Rush, Bulrushes, Cotton Grass, Bur Reed, 

 Sedges, &c. Some are tufted, as Purple Loosestrife, Water Plantain, 

 also members of aquatic vegetation, and they build up a layer of dead 

 stems growing from the topmost aided by the capillarity of the dried 

 stems and water, as in the case of the Tussock Sedge. They contain 

 air-spaces as in Rushes. Many have the mesophytic habit, and others 

 are Xerophytes. The seeds contain air-spaces, which assist in dis- 

 persing them by water. 



Two types of formation may be recognized at least, and there are 

 probably others. Many indeed are amphibious, growing half on land 

 half in water. The two recognized formations are the Reed formation 

 and the Bush Swamp formation. 



In classifying the marsh and water plants, we have regarded 

 as belonging to the latter all the plants which grow in or by the 

 sides of lakes, rivers, streams, and ditches, and have reserved for 

 the marsh plants those that grow mainly in true bogs or marshy 

 tracts that are separate or can be distinctly marked off from the 

 latter. In this way, while Reeds are included in Section VIII (and 

 some others here mentioned which occur in Section VIII), they are 

 equally marsh plants. The grouping by Lakes, Rivers, Streams, &c., 

 is partly artificial (just as in the case of roadside plants), for the benefit 

 of the touring botanist, who can better follow such classifications than 

 the cut-and-dried divisions into Hydrophytes, and, as here, Helo- 



