1895. ] Notes from my Herbarium. 153 
terminations of the spathes resemble so closely the true leaves 
that I looked about for some time before I could discover the 
hidden inflorescence. I suppose that, had I visited the plant 
earlier still, the staminate spike, bract and all, would have 
been entirely enclosed by the female spathe. 
Another plant showed the inflorescence a little farther ad- 
vanced. The pistillate flowers were entirely free from the 
spathe which was but lightly attached to the base of the 
spike. I pressed it separately, for it became detached as I 
gathered the plant, andI have mounted it on the sheet near 
its original position, labelling it as belonging to the base of 
the female spike. The enveloping part of the spathe is three- 
quarters of an inch wide, and is light brown, as when I col- 
lected it, while the long leafy projection is a deep green, 
exactly resembling the color of the leaves. The male spike 
was just freeing itself from its spathe, and was shedding its 
pollen in copious showers. At intervals along the inflores- 
cence, small bracts projected. Onexamining my various spec- 
imens, I find that the greatest number of bracts is six, vary- 
ing in length from one-half to six inches. In one case a 
bract, half way up the spike, encloses the top of the spike, 
just as the bract or spathe at the base encloses the whole 
spike. The leaves of the plant have broad, sheathing bases, 
and there is a beautiful gradation from leaf to smallest 
bract. One can hardly afford to omit this feature from his 
herbarium. I pressed specimens showing every possible stage 
of inflorescence. 
The fruit, though bulky, can easily be managed later in 
the season. A good way to supplement a specimen of the 
entire fruiting spike is to section one longitudinally, and 
mount it so as to show the inner face, with the stipitate fruit 
intact. The dark outer surface is then shown to be composed 
of the stigmatic surfaces on the ends of innumerable styles, 
while within are the copious hairs growing on the stipes. No 
dissection will be necessary to show this. 
On August 14, 1886, at Rye Beach, N. H., I took up a 
whole plant to show the creeping rootstocks and the fibrous 
roots. My specimen has four stocks, the longest being one 
foot and two inches. The scaly nodes are about an inch and 
a half apart, and throw out but few roots. The stocks are 
about half an inch thick and, when fresh, were very white. 
The plant roots very freely from its base, the roots being 
