16 BULLETIN 205, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tudinally ribbed (fig. 14). Eel-grass has numerous common names, 

 among which we may cite sea-wrack or grass-wrack, sea-, sweet-, 

 barnacle-, turtle-, and wigeon-grass. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Eel-grass is strictly a maritime species. In its natural habitat it is 

 cosmopolitan. In North America it is found from Greenland to the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and from Alaska to California. 



PROPAGATION. 



This plant grows only in salt water. It is common along shores 

 facing the open ocean, but also grows in bays and even lagoons where 

 the water must be far less salt than the sea. The seeds are not well 

 protected against drying and for that reason are unsuitable for trans- 

 planting. 1 Moreover, unless they can be sown in a very quiet place 



the chances are against securing a catch. 



fThe rootstocks, however, are rather tough 

 and resistant and, furthermore, can be 

 fig. i4.-seeds of eel-grass. fastened to the bottom. They must not 



be allowed to dry, but should be shipped 

 wet and handled as rapidly as possible. Bury or fasten to the bottom 

 in water a few feet deep where there is little surf. Once established 

 the plant will spread to more exposed areas. 



WIGEON-GRASS. 



VALUE AS DUCK FOOD. 



Wigeon-grass is of rather restricted range, but of considerable 

 importance as a duck food almost everywhere it grows. In no 

 locality, so far as known, is it more important than on the coast 

 of Texas. Here the bays that have kept their wigeon-grass have 

 kept their ducks; those in which the plant has been destroyed by 

 influxes of mud and filling up of inlets have lost them. At Rock- 

 port, Tex., wigeon-grass still holds its own and is the main depend- 

 ence of the visiting vegetarian ducks. About 64 per cent of the food 

 of 33 pintails collected at Rockport in December was made up of 

 rootstocks, leaves, and seeds of wigeon-grass. This plant furnished 

 also two-thirds of the food of 3 wigeons, and more than 54 per cent 

 of that of 37 redheads taken at the same time. 



Records of the food of ducks on St. Vincent Island, Florida, show 

 two other species of ducks to be very fond of this grass. Nineteen 

 little bluebills collected in January had eaten it, principally the seeds, 

 to the extent of over 63 per cent of their food, the number of seeds 

 per stomach varying from 500 to 4,000. The food of 17 gadwells 



1 They undoubtedly can be preserved by cold storage in salt water, but considering the limited use that 

 can be made of seeds on account of the heavy wash along most shores, this probably would not be profitable. 



