158 Lake Maxinkackee, Physical and Biological Survey 



bristly. In Green's marsh between the lakes other species throve, 

 maturing their fruit early in the year in the shallow warm ponds. 



The Charas form so important a part of the lake flora that no 

 labor was spared in an attempt to get an abundance of specimens 

 of all sorts in fruit. According to ancient custom much of the 

 material was pressed and made into herbarium material, while 

 other material was preserved in alcohol and formalin ; which is the 

 better way, it is, of course, for curators in museums to decide. The 

 herbarium specimens fit in well with other botanical material and 

 take up but little room, but some are so brittle that they usually 

 break to fragments with but little handling. 



The Charas are an important part of the life of the lake ; by 

 their abstraction of the lime from the water they do much to add 

 to its softness, and by the deposition of that same lime on the 

 bottom they do much to add to the marly bottom of the lake bed. 

 They furnish hiding places for various species of fish, the mad- 

 toms and darters inhabiting them throughout the year, and the 

 young bluegill, redeye, etc., hiding in them throughout the winter. 

 A number of important animals used by the fishes for food, such 

 as beach fleas, Asellus, etc., live among the Chara, and it is among 

 the Chara patches that the bluegill, perch and various sunfishes 

 usually stay during the spring months, feasting upon the abundant 

 life to be found there. The ducks and coots, after the more deli- 

 cate plants such as wild celery have been exhausted, feed upon the 

 Chara. 



The Characese were submitted to various specialists for identifi- 

 cation, the herbarium material to the late Dr. C. B. Robinson, and 

 the alcoholic material along with the plankton to Dr. George T. 

 Moore. Many of the specimens on account of their variability were 

 difficult to determine satisfactorily. Indeed, there have been so 

 few workers in the field and relatively little material collected over 

 the country generally that classification is exceedingly difficult. 

 The following notes on the various species are given : 



1. CHARA CONTRARIA A. Braun 



This is the most common Chara in the lake, forming the ex- 

 tensive meadows over the bottom. On account of its abundance it 

 is the most important Chara of the lake. Because of its forming 

 a brown carpet on the bottom of much of the lake, especially Outlet 

 Bay, it was referred to in our notes as the "carpet Chara." On 

 account of its heavy incrustation of lime, this Chara presented much 

 the same appearance the year round, looking much as if dead. In 

 the spring it sent up little delicate green shoots from the tips of the 



