218 Union Bay 



probably more than ninety per cent of the marsh production. 

 The beauty of the area is due largely to these three plants. 



One of the local professors told me of talking with two of 

 his colleagues while they were gazing at the marsh from 

 one of the campus windows. During their conversation he 

 remarked that he had not realized the beauty of that flat and 

 drab-appearing area until he had seen some color movies 

 which had been taken there. Then he was amazed at the 

 loveliness of line, of color, and arrangement. 



I think he well described the type of beauty of the marsh. 

 As in other marsh characteristics, understanding comes only 

 with an intimate knowledge of the place. On this day in 

 early August when I paddled slowly along, I looked at a soft, 

 gently waving expanse of green, broken only here and there 

 by the varying greens of cottonwoods, willows, and alders, 

 by still other shades of green of the cattails, and by the large 

 and irregular purple patches of the loosestrife flowers. This 

 is the typical pattern of this time in summer, but it is not as 

 it was six weeks ago and it is different from what it will be 

 at the end of another six weeks. 



The general pattern will be little changed but the detail of 

 design will be constantly shifting. The pattern will continue 

 to be one of uniform colors and blocks. There is power in the 

 simplicity of solid color massing which has been widely ex- 

 ploited in the past half century. I observe the result in the 

 planting in the public parks, in homes where gardens have 

 been laid out by modern landscape specialists, in the cos- 

 tuming of the theater and the planning of its scenery. The 

 marsh exemplifies this tendency. In only one other place 

 have I seen much massing of color— in the mountain hem- 

 lock forests. But there I notice little contrast through the 

 year, while in the marsh the vegetation changes with such 

 regularity that the advance of the year can be judged by the 

 progression of color. 



Three plants— the cattail, loosestrife, and bulrush— produce 



