October, 1922. 



The Canadian FieuvNaturalist 



125 



be eminently worth while. Sure enough, on the 

 farther shore of the pond were great patches of 

 the tiny magenta blooms. After feasting my eyes 

 on them, I came back to the nearer shore and 

 made my way along the side towards the head of 

 the pond; on my way I recognized with pleasure 

 several old friends about the margin: the smallest 

 of our Club Mosses (Lycopodium inundatum), the 

 Yellow-eyed Grass (Xyris flexuosa), the little 

 Green Wood Orchid (Habenaria davellala), and 

 the Long-leaved Sundew (Drosera longifolia). 

 About half way up the shore, as I had anticipated, 

 just out from the firm sandy margin, were dozens 

 and dozens of this quaint little purple mud-dweller 

 {U. resupinata). Passing these colonies I found 

 myself presently among patches of that pretty 

 yellow Crowfoot, the pigmy Ranunculus Flam- 

 mula. I had grown so used to this flower that I 

 hardly noticed its blooms, just taking them in with 

 the tail of my eye as I moved along; but while 

 clambering over a pine stump half buried in the 

 sand, I noticed among them a little yellow blos- 

 som that somehow seemed different, whether in 

 colour or in form it would be hard to say, but 

 whatever it was it served to arrest ray attention, 

 so I knelt to examine the flower closely, and be- 

 hold! there were two distinct little blossoms among 

 these patches of yellow in the sand, and one of 

 them was a bladderwort. It proved to be the 

 Humped Bladderwort {Utricular ia gibba); rarely 

 more than one bloom on the scape and the scape 

 not much more than two inches in length. 



Last summer's (1921) tropical heat caused 

 such unusual evaporation that at the end of July 

 the watery coverlet had been snatched off these 

 ooze beds, and their occupants roused for their 

 brief revel a month or six weeks ahead of time. 

 But there was no opportunity to do more than 

 race to the landing of the Beaver Pond and back 

 to camp for we were under promise to pack and 

 set out on a week's trip with some friends — paddle 

 and portage — about the Park. Our main course 

 was to be down the Oxtongue to the High Falls 

 and back; but before going south we were to 

 spend two days paddling northwest to the centre 

 of the Park, and here on the very first day of our 

 trip awaited me the surprise of my life in the 

 flowering line. 



On Wednesday, August 3rd, we set out by canoe 

 from Joe Lake Station on our way to Big Island 

 Lake and the Otterslides. There were four of us 

 in the party, a congenial couple from Florida in 

 one canoe, and my wife and I in another. Soon 

 after entering the creek above Little Joe Lake, our 

 Florida friends who were just ahead of us sung out 

 that among the large yellow Bladderworts so 

 abundant at the sides of the main channel of Joe 



Creek were some purple ones. At first I thought 

 that if the find was a bladderwort it must be the 

 little Reversed species; but we were in deep, 

 open water, and when I paddled up to the spot, 

 judge of my surprise to find myself staring at a 

 large handsome spray of flowers, as sturdy as the 

 Greater Bladderwort and with a somewhat similar 

 scape, three or four blossoms on each, but these, 

 instead of yellow, a beautiful shade of violet, the 

 lower lip having a spot of yellow on its face just 

 forward of where the two lips met and a big stout 

 spur jutting out below it. Long floating stems 

 with crowded whorls of foliage lay in masses on 

 the channel, the sprays of blossom so abundant as 

 to give a kind of luminous haze or blush to the 

 surface of the water. 



A few specimens were stowed carefully away into 

 a pocket plant-press, and there they remained for 

 a week, buried ("almost lostj under the thronging 

 excitements of a canoe trip. These indeed were 

 so many and great that I had time but twice to 

 think of my find; once, between the Otterslide 

 Lakes, where we discovered a large patch of U. 

 resupinata. and again on the last day of the trip 

 when we reached the Beaver Pond and our eyes 

 fell on an army of the Reversed and the Hump>ed 

 Bladderworts drawn up on the margin, its cohorts 

 all gleaming with purple and gold. 



Reference to Gray showed that whorled leaves 

 were found in one species only, Utricularia pur- 

 purea, and an examination of the last three 

 editions of Gray revealed an enticing little pro- 

 blem. Fifty years ago the Purple Bladderwort 

 was known on the Atlantic coast only; thirty 

 years ago, records had been added from Lake 

 County, Indiana; and some twelve years ago it 

 had been reported from points in North Indiana 

 and Michigan. It would be interesting to know 

 in the first place whether the rapidly widening 

 range of stations is due to the plant's activity or 

 only to the activity of botanical research; I mean 

 whether the colonies are newly planted or only 

 newly discovered. In Algonquin the Purple 

 Bladderwort has established itself in several large 

 masses on both sides of the main channel of Joe 

 Creek, and over a distance of about 100 yards, up 

 and down stream. The colony must be at least 

 ten years old, I should judge, and may be much 

 older. If the colonies inland are newly estab- 

 lished, it must mean that these plants have come 

 to form the regular food of some water fowl and 

 that their seeds are frequently borne to a distance 

 on web, plumage, or bill (if not in crop). 



The extant edition of Gray records it on the 

 coast from New Brunswick to Florida, so it may 

 have taken in the Atlantic Provinces; but I was 

 told it was new to the Dominion; it is certainly 



