142 



No visitor to the Philippines should neglect the picturesque 

 gorge near Pagsanjan, and the botanist "will be especialh' in- 

 terested in the trip because of the opportunity it gives to ob- 

 ser\'e the coconut industry, which centers about that little city. 

 Our own trip was made on one of the little steamers on Laguna 

 de Bay as far as Paete, at the east end of the lake, and thence by 

 a dugout canoe to Pagsanjan. This last part of the journey 

 lies across about four miles of open water in the lake, through 

 the marshes that obstruct the mouth of the Pagsanjan river, 

 and then about four miles up the river itself. The northeast 

 monsoon helped us across the open water in fairly quick time, 

 but the wind died shorth' after we entered the delta, so that 

 the remainder of our trip was exceedingly slow. The boatmen 

 tried to help matters by whistling for the wind, in a series of 

 low plaintive notes, and once in a while they did get enough 

 breeze to push on up the slow sluggish stream. If the progress 

 was slow, it gave us all the better chance to obser\-e the interest- 

 ing aquatic vegetation of the marshes. 



The chief species of floating vegetation is the well-known 

 Pistia stratiotes, with yellow-green rosettes up to eight inches 

 in diameter. In sheltered coves of Laguna de Bay it grows in 

 dense masses, and isolated plants or groups of plants, washed 

 out by waves or swept out by wind, are seen scattered all over 

 the lake. Of course the}- live as well in the open water as in 

 the sheltered ba^'s. Once in the open water, the general ten- 

 dency of the current is to carry them all slowl}^ toward the 

 Pasig river, which drains the lake into Manila Bay, passing 

 enroute through the city of ^Manila. Standing on one of the 

 bridges in that city, one sees a continuous procession of Pistia 

 plants, usually cohering in masses two or three feet across, 

 floating slowly down. The plants die when they reach salt 

 water. 



Pistia is also common on the made land near some of the 

 villages along shore, and on the mud of rapidly forming deltas. 

 This land form appears to be permanenth" rooted, and is some- 

 what smaller and much yellower than the floating form. 



Among the numerotis mouths of the Pagsanjan ri\-er, where 



