IN THE PONKAPOAG BOGS 



blooms from the leaf stalk in this way. 

 When the seeds have ripened I suspect 

 the plant of setting this bulb-like nodule 

 free to float away to another shore, take 

 root as a real corm or tuber might, and 

 produce more floating-hearts. 



This bog on the westerly shore of 

 Ponkapoag Pond was not long ago made 

 a part of Boston's park system, which 

 thus moves ever sedately toward the 

 Berkshire hills, yet it is a bit of nature 

 as wild and untrammeled as it was in 

 the days when Myles Standish may have 

 looked down upon it from the top of 

 great Blue Hill, as it had stood unchanged 

 in his day for many and many a long 

 century. So I fancy it will remain for 

 centuries to come, for Nature holds her 

 own here well. Indeed, she encroaches, 

 for a bog grows wherever it has free 

 water to grow into. So, after many 



