124 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



renewed as in the case of the clover, but the same individual plants 

 persisting year after year. 



In the shallower water, indeed, many of the plants, such as 

 Vallisneria, do die down, or their leaves are pulled off by ducks and 

 washed up on the shore in great rolls. The rolls of plants which 

 wash ashore decay into a rich black soil to be again washed down 

 into the depths of the lake by the undertow. In shallow lakes, 

 where warmth and sunlight can reach the bottom, doubtless one 

 of the most important influences in oblitering the lakes is the im- 

 mense mass of vegetation which grows up and dies down yearly. 



The importance or efficiency of water plants in filling shallow 

 lakes and shallow parts of lakes is well shown in the southeast 

 part of the lake along Norris Inlet, and along the Outlet where 

 what was once lake bottom has been built up into flat sedgy 

 marshes (Green's marsh and Norris Inlet marsh), the lake al- 

 ready having lost from this cause an area of over 70 acres, along 

 with its continuity with Lost Lake. 



THE LAND FLORA 



INTRODUCTION 



A striking character of some of the small ponds and kettle-holes 

 about the lake is the sharp division of the vegetation into concentric 

 zones, so that the ecological aspect of botany is abnormally intensi- 

 fied. This is the case at Hawk's marsh and at some of the wood- 

 land ponds in Farrar's and Walley's woods. With Lake Maxin- 

 kuckee, which is, of course, only a pond on a larger scale, the same 

 condition might be expected to obtain, but generally speaking, it 

 is not the case, because the steep shores come close to the water's 

 edge, making the transition from the high land flora to the lake 

 flora quite abrupt. It is manifest, however, in such regions as 

 Norris Inlet and Green's marsh which were once parts of the lake. 

 It is much more manifest about Lost Lake than in Lake Maxin- 

 kuckee, and formerly, when the marsh about Lost Lake was more 

 flooded than at present, and covered with shallow water species of 

 Chara and Utricularia, it was more marked than at present. 



Of course, there are numerous forms, such as the bulrushes, 

 pickerel-weeds, mud plantain and others, which belong equally upon 

 the land or in the water, and in other cases there are dimorphic 

 species having one form adapted to the water and another to the 

 land, so that it is difficult to tell just where the lake forms end 

 and land forms begin. But generally speaking, the lake and land 

 floras are pretty markedly distinct. 



