Azolla 



G. H. Bretxall 



State Normal School 

 LaCrosse, Wis. 



C2 OMETIMES one runs across the most 

 exquisite beauty in the most unlooked for 

 places. A swamp is generally considered 

 to be a most undesirable thing and much 

 more of an eyesore than a place of beaut v. 

 But those that have learned to know the 

 swamp have found it to be full of sur- 

 prises in the way of corners of unusual 

 attractiveness. They have found it, dur- 

 ing the summer, to be an ever changing panorama, each scene seem- 

 ing more pleasing than the one before, till fall comes and the cardinal 

 flower with its plume of flaming red ushers in the grand finale. 



Much of the swamp vegetation is little known and the water 

 ferns are so inconspicuous a part of this vegetation that one 

 scarcely takes them into consideration; yet even these may minis- 

 ter to the pleasure of our walks. The Azolla which is perhaps the 

 rarest of the water ferns may help make one of the most interesting 

 and beautiful of our plant associations. This little plant which is 

 in the form of a delicately branched frond of about an half inch in 

 length and width floats on the surface of the water. It lives on the 

 ponds which are shrunken lagoons and from the years we have 

 watched it seems to appear every two years. Its history and where 

 it stays during its two years absence is imperfectly known. But it 

 must be in some form or stage of growth in the bottom of the pond. 

 It must be getting ready for its appearance above. When it appears 

 it is green and its dark greenness gives a pleasing contrast to other 

 plants of lighter green. Its depth of color would catch the eye of 

 an artist as well as that of the botanist or nature lover. Later in 

 the summer it turns a rich red. The pond which is covered with 

 the Azolla gradually changes through a series of hues from green 

 to red. As it usually takes the whole pond it presents at this time 

 a beautiful stretch of radiant red. 



It is now that we get a rare beauty of the swamp in its fullness. 

 Not only do we have the beauty of the plant itself, its delicacy and 

 its color, but we have the contrast with the surrounding green and 



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