78 



If this flag is cut before September 15, it has not reached its 

 mature state, and when dry it shrivels and is worthless." 



Presumably the narrow leaved cat-tail is more suitable for 

 such purposes, because longer and fitting the staves better than 

 the broad-leaved species, Typha latifolia. If cut before Sept. 15, 

 the seeds are perhaps not quite ripe, although extension is 

 largely due to rootstocks. It is probably an interesting survival 

 of an old custom, by which botanical principles have consider- 

 able practical application. R. H. Torrey 



Bill to Remove Trapa 7iatans as a Nuisance 



Another botanical bill introduced in the 1938 Legislature at 

 Albany, proposed the eradication of the Water Chestnut, 

 Trapa natans, as a nuisance along the shores of the Mohawk 

 River. This bill, by Assemblyman James J. Carroll of Albany, 

 was an amendment to the Conservation Law, "in relation to 

 authorizing and directing the conservation Department to 

 abate nuisances created by the presence of water or river chest- 

 nuts along the shores of the waters of the Mohawk River be- 

 tween the cities of Cohoes and Little Falls and to remove the 

 same," and making an appropriation of $25,000. The bill was 

 not reported out from the Committee and so was not acted on. 



Trapa natans, the water chestnut, is a very interesting 

 plant, in that after it was eliminated in America, following 

 the Tertiary Epoch, by disturbances affecting many species, 

 it has now appeared in North America, as a scattering adven- 

 tive, which seems to do very well where established and to 

 spread rapidly. Gray's Manual (1908) reported it in quiet 

 streams, in Schenectady County, N.Y., which was evidently 

 the source of the present large Mohawk Valley infestation, and 

 in Middlesex County, Mass., "introduced from Eurasia." 

 Mr. Carroll tells us that the plants in the Mohawk River are 

 from seeds imported from Germany about ten years ago by a 

 group of local sportsmen, who planted them thinking it would 

 be valuable food for wild ducks and so a boon to hunters. Frere 

 Marie-Victorin, of the L^niversity of Montreal, says it ex- 

 ists in southern Europe as a relic. Last year, driving north 

 from North Carolina, waiting for the ferry from Colonial Beach 

 to Potomac Beach, across the Potomac River, Louis W. Ander- 

 son, of Newark, picked up large quantities of the curious horned 

 seed vessel, on the beach, so it must occur somewhere along 

 the Potomac below Washington, where the seeds had been 

 floated. 



