8 NEW YORK STATE MUSeUM 



lying in the northern part of Lewis county a short distance east of 

 Lake Bonaparte. It is about two miles in diameter where the 

 Carthage and Adirondack Railroad crosses it. The number of 

 species of flowering plants and ferns found in it is 128. 



The swamps and peat marshes of the State are a part of our 

 natural resources. When cleared, drained, and properly cultivated 

 they constitute some of our most valuable agricultural lands. Their 

 gradual formation from a water surface to a land surface is interest- 

 ing and due chiefly to the agency of plants. If the original pond 

 or lake is very shallow its whole surface, except the central chan- 

 nel through which the stream flows, is occupied by aquatic plants. 

 These by their annual growth and partial decay form a sedi- 

 mentary deposit which gradually fills the lake until water-loving 

 mosses, sphagnum, and other marsh plants take possession. When 

 this has taken place we have a sphagnum marsh. If the lake is 

 deep in the center the marsh forms only along the shallow mar- 

 gins. By the yearly growth and decay of the plants of the 

 sphagnum marsh its surface gradually becomes firmer and small 

 shrubs and herbs of wet places take possession. When the shrubs 

 predominate it is called a shrubby marsh ; when marsh grasses 

 and sedges are the prevailing vegetation it is a grassy marsh. In 

 due time the surface of the shrubby marsh becomes sufficiently 

 firm to sustain and support certain kinds of trees whose roots do 

 not object to an abundant and constant supply of moisture. When 

 this stage has been reached we have a swamp, a low wet piece 

 of woods covered with trees and tall shrubs. The border of a 

 marsh may be and often is a wooded swamp which is itself merely 

 an older part of the marsh. The grassy marsh appears to be less 

 inviting to the advent of trees than the sphagnum marsh, and 

 prairielike, it often remains open an indefinite time. Among the 

 natural products of our marshes are the two species of cran- 

 berries, the large or common cranberry and the small cranberry, 

 the mosses used by florists and nurserymen for packing material 

 and the peat used as an absorbent or bedding in stables and ulti- 

 mately in this way as a component of the stable manure. The 

 more firm and fibrous peat from bushy marshes is used for various 

 purposes requiring a fibrous material and for heating purposes. 

 The grasses and sedges of the grassy marsh are sometimes cut for 

 hay, but this is rarely done except in cases of scarcity or very 

 high prices of hay of better quality. The sedges of certain species 

 are sometimes utilized in making '' crex carpets " and various 

 articles of furniture. 



