THE EFFECT OF SOME PUGET SOUND BOG WATERS 
ON THE ROOT HAIRS OF TRADESCANTIA 
GEORGE 5, KRIGG 
The theory advanced in this paper is that plants other than 
bog xerophytes are excluded from peat bogs because of their 
inability to produce normal root hairs in the toxic habitat of bogs, 
their absorptive surface being thus so decreased that they cannot 
get water enough to enable them to live. The writer has also 
confirmed with Puget Sound bog waters certain results obtained 
by other workers with bog waters from the Middle West and 
extreme East. 
- Description of bogs 
The xerophilous character of the flora of peat bogs is well 
known. In the Puget Sound region the plants most characteristic 
of undrained bogs are Ledum groenlandicum, Kalmia glauca, 
Oxycoccus oxycoccus intermedius, Sphagnum, and Drosera rotundi- 
folia. The first four plants named are found in every undrained 
bog that the author has visited in the region, while the last one 
has been found absent from a few. Other plants sometimes found 
in bogs of the region are Pinus monticola, Betula glandulosa, Salix 
myritlloides, Myrica Gale, Eriophorum russeolum, and Juncus 
oregana. Tsuga heterophylla and Pinus contorta are found on the 
drier hummocks in bogs (8), Ledum columbianum and Myrica 
californica are reported to be found in the beach bogs along the 
Pacific Ocean instead of L. groenlandicum and M. Gale (8). 
Peat bogs are common in the Puget Sound region. The 
studies reported in this paper are based on six bogs. One of these 
is situated within the city of Seattle at the corner of E. 55th St. 
and 6th Ave. N.E. During the last two years the forest surround- 
ing this bog has been cleared away and the streets along its edges _ 
have been filled with dirt from the neighboring hills. It has not 
been drained however and its flora is still just as typical as it was 
before the surrounding forest was removed, except that Drosera 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 55] [314 
