ts 
E. Hall, Athens, Menard County, Illinois not far from the capital 
Springfield, in about the middle of the State,has in his meadows and 
fields Isoetes melanonpoda and observes them diligently. I have often 
written previously that he found the plants below waterlevel esrly 
Mas 
in u; soon afterwards they dried out in many places and began to 
produce fruit;the driest were supposed to have developed the most, 
alrsady ripe in May and all were ripe by the very dry June, so that 
by the end of June any siegen of them had disappeared. Much rain in 
July’and from then on humid-warm weather, a very warm September, and 
warm to the end of November with few frosts at nisht. The Isoetes 
sprouted soon and began to grow vigorously and were in Furi FIrult Dy 
November. He mailed me numerous specisens for distribution. I must 
leave it open, if he is right, that the plants of November must be 
seedlines from the Summer. I give an excerpt of his letter of Decen- 
ber 5,1865 adäressed to me. 
Our 
" The basic shape of the leaf depends entirely feem circumstan- 
ces. If the tuber lies close to the surface,the base is often twice 
as broad as hishs If the tuber is embedded deeply in tough clay. it 
becomes twice as hish as proad. Further, leneth and width of leaves 
are not correct ( sic, E.D.) and depend on the depth of water and 
the fertility of the soil. The lakes and puddles in the prairie pro- 
duce much larrer and stronger plants than other localities. 
" T have no microscope; with the naked eye I have seen the 
following: Vegetation of the spores begins with their enlargzement, 
and shows very soon a two-lobed( as to the tuber) organization; 
rootlets emerge then from the lower part of both lobes. The spore 
parts on the upper surface and the leaves emerge from this split. 
Thereupon continuous enlargzement of all parts and production of 
new leaves and roots. The spore-skin parts now completely into two 
halves and are being dropped off on both sides of the growine tu- 
9 10 MISSOURI 
| BOTANICAL 
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