34 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
of peat which represents the amassing of successive generations of 
plants in the presence of a more or less constant, but stagnant and 
concealed, water supply, permitting the growth of peat-forming 
plants in situ). The methods for determining the relative dis- 
tribution of these two forms of peat are those which were devised 
by Davis (1). Samples were taken with a sounding instrument, 
the Eberbach probe, invented by Davis, at one foot intervals, in 
sufficiently numerous localities in the deposits to show the average 
conditions. The samples were forced into cloth sacks, after a 
superficial study of the gross characters, and stored for subsequent 
investigation in water rendered antiseptic with carbolic acid or 
formalin. A study of the gross characters of the material is gen- 
erally sufficient to determine the method of deposition, and refer- 
ence to the microscopic results will be made only where such seems 
necessary for greater accuracy. These investigations have led to 
the same conclusions that Davis (2) reached in regard to alloc- 
thonous peat deposits in general in the United States, which he 
has stated as follows: ‘At the present time peat deposits of this 
type (lacustrine) are numerically more Beep rat than any other 
in regions where peat formation is most common.’ 
In addition to the different types of lakes just described, there 
are other areas where peat may be found, namely, swamps, river 
estuaries, etc. Examples of these localities will be mentioned later. 
Since the types of peat deposition fall so conveniently into two 
classes, they will be discussed separately, with special reference to 
the gross characters of the samples. Autochthonous peat (in situ) 
may be very varied, both in respect to composition and gross 
appearance, depending upon the species of plants which enter 
into its formation and the amount of oxidation that has taken 
place. For example, in those deposits which have been formed 
by the growth of Cladiwm, Sagitiaria, Cyperaceae, etc., or, to be 
more general, where the peat is entirely herbaceous in texture, the 
samples appear as fibrous, light brown, spongy material in which 
the individual parts of the plants can be distinctly seen and sepa- 
rated. On the other hand, where the quality of the peat is of a 
woody nature, tests show a deep brown granular substance, in 
which there is much fine amorphous material intermixed with the 
