95 



sented in Second Lake by six scattered plants (one of these was 

 a floating rootstalk with four leaves) and in Third Lake l)y two 

 young plants. None of these in the two lower lakes had i)los- 

 somed in 1924 as far as could be ascertained. In this case at 

 least, there seems to be something either in the water or the soil 

 of the bottom that has prevented the plant from getting a foot- 

 hold, as several attempts have been made to transplant mature 

 plants from First Lake to the others. The yellow water lily 

 has succeeded better, as there were nearly a score of plants in 

 Second Lake and eight in Third and in each lake several of the 

 plants were in blossom this year. Other plants that seem es- 

 pecially well fitted for dispersal under the conditions, such as 

 the floating heart with its slender stems with clusters of roots 

 developed a short distance below the leaves, have not been found 

 in either of the lower lakes. 



When the level of Little Long Pond was raised, in two places 

 masses of boggy soil broke loose and floated. These floating 

 islands, anchored by the roots of shrubs, are the only places 

 around the lakes where such bog plants ascranberry , round-leaved 

 and intermediate sundew and pitcher plants grow. Their margins 

 are bordered by the water loosestrife, Decodon verticUlata, the 

 long slender stems dipping into the water where they form a thick 

 growth of spongy, air-holding bark, develop a few floating roots, 

 then rise again into the air. Occasionally this process is re- 

 peated a second and even a third time, the plant then con- 

 sisting of a series of two or three leafy loops separated by sub- 

 merged portions. This plant also should be easily transported 

 to other parts of the lakes as portions of the root bearing stems 

 are easily broken off and may start new clumps of the plant, 

 but no plants have been found anywhere around the lakes except 

 on the margins of these islands. 



Dr. Gilbert Morgan Smith* in discussing the plankton algae of 

 these lakes refers to the much greater algal flora in the Second 

 and Third Lakes. At the time of his investigations these tvvo 

 lakes "bloomed" profusely in August, Dr. Smith suggested 

 that as the vegetable matter submerged when the lakes were 

 formed gradually disappeared by decay and the water assumed 

 a more stable chemical condition and approached the conditions 



* Gilbert Morgan Smith, Ecology' of the Plankton Algae in the Palisades 

 Interstate Park, Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin, Vol. 23, \o. 4. Feb. 1924. 



