138 



PLANTS OF ONEIDA COUNTY 



To Najas major : 



The statement that the habitats given are the only ones known on the "Wes- 

 tern Continent must be enlarged to include another, Irondequoit bay, Monroe 

 county, where it was first detected by E. J. Pickett. 



The presence of a plant of so well-established maritime character, in a bay 

 of a freshwater lake, is at once surprising and suspicious. But the mystery 

 is easily cleared. The belt of Medina sandstone commencing just southwest 

 of Utica, in two or three thin layers below the Oneida conglomerate, each 

 crowded with the characteristic fossil the old Fucoides harlani, extending 

 through the western part of this county, southern Oswego, along the shore 

 of Lake Ontario in northern Cayuga, Wayne, Monroe counties and west- 

 ward, is everywhere saliferous, abounding in springs and wells from some of 

 which salt was manufactured in old times. A series of these springs, from 

 Vernon, Oneida county, to the Niagara river, originate in the shales and 

 marls of this rock wherever sufficiently near the surface to be subject to 

 leaching by rains, and frequently yield so much saline matter as to affect 

 vegetation. Many occur in Monroe county, along margins and beds of small 

 streams, part of them emptying into Irondequoit bay, one of the largest being 

 located near its head. The water from these springs is briny to the taste, and 

 may accumulate in such a long landlocked inlet of the Lake in sufficient 

 quantity to make the water brackish, just as the overflowings of salt springs 

 affect Onondaga lake, thus supplying the necessary condition for this marine 

 plant. 



To Platanthera rotundieolia, var. oblongifolia, p. 83 : 



Mud lake, on whose damp mossy borders this plant has its station, is a small 

 round pond in a depression among the very highest tops of the hills between 

 the Mohawk and Susquehanna vallies, and is about 1600 feet above tide in 

 the Hudson river. 



To Ctpripeditjm arietinum, p. 88 : 



The height of Summit lake above tidewater is 1350 feet. Above its head is a 

 large open moss bog, very shaky and full of sloughs, bordered by tamaracks 

 and surrounded by an extensive arbor-vitae swamp, the locality of many 

 rare plants; the very source both of the Susquehanna river, and also of Ot- 

 squago creek descending to the Mohawk. 



To Cham.«;lirium luteum, p. 91, the station : 



Springy rocky steeps just west of Bignose cliffs on the Mohawk, Montgomery 

 county ; on the open almost upright sides of the hill. 



After Eleooharis obtusa, p. 95, the species : 



OLIVACEA, Torrey. Olive-fruited Eleocharis. 



Culms filiform, often diffuse, compressed, sulcate, softj spike ovate, 

 somewhat obtuse, many-flowered; scales ovate, obtuse, membranaceous; 

 bristles 6, nearly as long as the nut ; style bifid ; nut obovate, lenticular, 

 dull ; tubercle conical, rostrate, distinct : Torrey Cyp. 



Culms cespitose, erect, diffuse or somewhat decumbent, usually about a 

 span long and nearly a line in diameter, but often dwarfish and slender, 

 of a soft flexible texture, with mucronate sheaths at the base. Spikes 3-4 

 lines long, 20 — 30 flowered, sometimes rather acute. Scales closely or 

 somewhat loosely imbricated : one or two of the lowest shorter and bract- 

 like ; the others with a narrow scarious margin. Bristles pretty stout, re- 

 trorsely hispid. Stamens 3. Achenium smooth, sometimes a little shining, 

 dark olive when ripe. Tubercle rather free around the base, acute or 

 somewhat obtuse, about one-third the length of the achenium : Torrey 

 Fl. N. Y. 



On a sandy peninsula extending into Sodus bay just inside the point, where 

 it is very abundant; equally common on the highest ground in the long 

 Cottonwood grove, find on low banks with Cyperus injlexus and Scirpns 

 debilis. Not before detected away from the Coast. July - October. 



