84 Bog-Trotting for OrcHids 



no alarm at our approach, but stood their ground pour- 

 ing forth beautiful liquid notes. In one place near the 

 centre of the lake, we crossed an expanse of deep water 

 where long rootlets of the Water Persicaria (^Polygonum 

 amphibiuvi) supported glossy carmine, lance - like 

 leaves, which swayed gracefully on the surface of the 

 swelling waves as we approached. These strange 

 deep-water weeds send forth rich crimson or pinkish 

 flowers a little later, seeming fairly to stain the lake. 

 I had never seen this species before growing in such 

 depths of water. It is a species of the Buckwheat 

 Family, and a near cousin of the barnyard smart-weed 

 and the knot-grass or door-weed. The generic name, 

 Polygonum, comes from the Greek, meaning "many 

 knees." It is so called on account of the swollen 

 joints of some of the species of this family. The 

 leaves of the Water Persicaria are brilliant crimson on 

 the lower surface, and with age and exposure the up- 

 per surface turns deep Indian-red. 



These plants were rooted at least fifteen feet below 

 the water's surface in the mud. They may be found, 

 too, along the shallow shores of Pownal Pond. They 

 also grow in ponds and lakes far northward to Quebec 

 and Alaska, and as far south as New Jersey and Ken- 

 tucky, and westward to California. They thrive at an 

 altitude of two thousand feet, in the lakes of the Adi- 

 rondacks, blooming there, as a rule, in July and Au- 

 gust. Thoreau observed this species in the lakes of 

 the Maine woods, during his journey in 1853. 



On the 30th of June I ventured forth to Etchowog, 



