89 



raises the flowers a few inches above the surface of the water 

 when they are ready to bloom. 



It comes into bloom in late May, and continues in bloom 

 until August. W'e saw a number of plants resting on the bottom 

 in a foot of water with the flower stalks just beginning to arise 

 from the rooting stem. These stalks were only an inch or so 

 high and at that stage apparently not enough buoyancy had 

 developed to raise the plant to the surface. But, as the flowers 

 form and the buds appear, the inflated stem extends to several 

 inches in length, and its air chambers together with some prob- 

 able degree of lifting power furnished by the finely dissected 

 leaves, developing anew for the season bring the stems, with the 

 interrupted raceme, of whitish, five-parted flowers, whorled at 

 the contracted joints, to a floating condition in which the buds 

 are exposed to the air and open. After the seeds are ripened, 

 toward autumn, the whole plant, which floats loosely about in 

 the water, sinks to the bottom for the winter. 



Ricciocarpus natans, one of our floating hepatics was also 

 found in Weir's Pond. A plant new to most of us, was Lysimachia 

 (Naumburgia) thyrsiflora, the Tufted Loosestrife, which was 

 apparently well established and blooming thriftily in a water 

 garden of wild plants on the grounds of Mr. Morehouse, in 

 Branchville. Mr. Harger said it is not common in Connecticut 

 and Taylor records it as local and scattered in our club range. 



Raymond H. Torrey 



Trip of June 6 to the Hills South of Chester, 

 Orange County, New York 



Due to threatening weather and the fact that this year hap- 

 pened to be an unusually good one for wild strawberries, our 

 party did not climb beyond the lowermost ridges of Sugarloaf 

 Mountain, but spent time on Durland Hill, which lies between 

 Sugarload and the town of Chester. While not aff'ording the 

 magnificent view to be seen from all sides of Sugarloaf, this hill 

 (about 850 feet high) appears to be much richer in plants, and, 

 like Sugarloaf, is composed of slaty rocks, which foster a strik- 

 ingly different flora from that of the crystalline Ramapo Moun- 

 tains to the eastward. The slopes of Durland Hill are heavily 

 wooded with oaks and hickories, providing a good display of 

 Hepatica in early spring. The chief plant of interest in the ascent 

 from the southeast is the excessively rare Lespedeza Brittonii, 



