OTHER WATER BORDERS 



green, resembling the " live-for-ever " of old 

 gardens and graveyards, but even less at- 

 tractive. After so much schooling in the 

 virtues of water-seeking plants, one is not 

 surprised to learn that its mucilaginous sap 

 has healing powers. 



Last and inevitable resort of overflow 

 waters is the tulares, great wastes of reeds 

 (Juncus} in sickly, slow streams. The 

 reeds, called tules, are ghostly pale in 

 winter, in summer deep poisonous-looking 

 green, the waters thick and brown; the 

 reed beds breaking into dingy pools, clumps 

 of rotting willows, narrow winding water 

 lanes and sinking paths. The tules grow 

 inconceivably thick in places, standing man- 

 high above the water; cattle, no, not any 

 fish nor fowl can penetrate them. Old 

 stalks succumb slowly ; the bed soil is quag- 

 mire, settling with the weight as it fills 

 240 



