70 Twenty-fifth Report on the State Museum. 



full grown plants with mature fruit on ih.Q fourth. In no instance 

 were mature fruiting plants found on internodes younger than this. 

 On the other hand, however, a few rather large and slightl}^ 

 branched plants were found on the fifth and sixth internodes. 

 Thus it is evident that this plant requires three seasons for its 

 entire growth and the perfecting of its fruit. In the first season 

 the plant emerges from the bark, in the second it forms its iiower- 

 buds, in the third it blossoms, the male plants perishing soon after, 

 the fertile or female plants enduring until the ripening of the fruit 

 in autumn. It is possible that the seeds ma)^ sometimes germinate 

 on internodes older than those next to the young shoots of the sea- 

 son or else that the plant may sometimes continue longer than the 

 tliird season as is indicated by the few specimens on the fifth and 

 sixth internodes. I thought I detected a slight curvature and 

 prolongation of the pith or central portion of the stem below the 

 apparent base of the stem, whence it is not improbable that there 

 is a subcortical or creeping stem which advances with the growth 

 of the branch from year to year, sending up successive crops of 

 plants. This would explain most readily the great abundance of 

 plants and their regular gradation on successive internodes, but I 

 tailed to trace any such subcortical connecting stem. 



Row are the seeds disseminated? Having visited the locality of 

 the plant one month subsequent to its discovery in September, I 

 was a little surprised to find almost no fruit-bearing specimens left. 

 •In their stead were here and there little heaps of fragments of 

 stems, fruit and seeds all intermingled, adhering to each other and 

 to the branches by the viscid coating of the seeds, in such a man- 

 ner as to suggest the idea that some insect or bird had been among 

 the plants, breaking them down and perhaps feeding upon the fruit. 



I have in no instance found both the male and the female plants 

 on the same branch, nor even on the same tree. If such a remark- 

 able separation is constant it would be interesting to know the 

 cause of it. 



Utriculakia striata Leo. 



Wading River, Long Island. E. S. Miller. . 



ITtrigularia purpurea Walt. 



"Wading Eiver, L. I. Miller. 



Rum EX Patientia L. 



i^ew Baltimore, Greene count3\ E. C. Iloioe. 



Rhynchospora macrostaohva Torr. 

 Wading River. Miller. 



Eleocharis Robbinsii Oakes. 



Long Pond near Wading River. MilleT. 



