experiments to see if the SToecies could thus be reestablished. Inasmuch 

 as the west-coast variety of Zostera is likewise of great importance and 

 has escaped the blight, it was hoped that it could b© transplanted to the 

 denuded areas along the Atlantic coast. Accordingly,: several bushels of 

 both the narrow- and the broad- leaved varieties of pacific eel.grass were 

 obtained at Friday" Harbor, 'Wash., -and shipped east for ■■■experimental 

 plantings. Plantings were made in 11 localities from Plymouth Harbor,' 

 Mass., to C^e Bomain, S. C- Plants and seeds, obtained from the' Pacific 

 coast and from recovered areas on the east coast, were used. 



The ejcperimental plots were "about 3^ feet square, and usually were 

 covered with poultry netting to protect them from waterfowl . Stakes at 

 each corner of the plot served to anchor the netting, and at the same 

 time acted as markers. The planting was done .siinply by .pushing the 

 rhizomes into the mud or sand. The foliage of the broad-leaved Pacific 

 eelgrass was so long and rank that the leaves of many plants were cut 

 off about 5 inches above the rhizome as a precaution against the uproot- 

 ing of the plants by tides and wind currents. 



Localities 



Lakes Bay, Pleasantville, N. J . --Both 'the broad- and the narrow- 

 leaved varieties of the pacific eelgrass were planted here in separate 

 plots on April 3, 1936. The plantings were made in fairly soft mud on 

 the west side of the bay, near the Pleasantville High School. Both were 

 covered with poultry netting. By May 10 the narrow-leaved plot was dy- 

 ing out and the rootstocks blackening. The plants of the broad-leaved 

 variety were _still Intact at that time, the growing tips being fairly 

 fresh. The older leaves were dying, however, and nev/ leaves were very 

 slow in coming. Subsequent checks of this planting, made early in the 

 summer, revealed that the plants of both varieties had died out complete- 

 ly, leaving only dead rootstocks in the mud. Even these last remnants 

 had disappeared by November 1935. 



Manahawken, N. J . — One plot of the narrow-leaved variety of the 

 Pacific eelgrass, planted in April under wire in Barnegat Bay south of 

 the Beach Haven causeway, was not successful. A check on May 11 dis- 

 closed every plant in the plot dead, or nearly so, and the rootstocks 

 blackened. Later observations failed to reveal any signs of revival. 



Lewes, Del . — On October 24, 1935, Neil Hotchkiss and W. S. Bourn, 

 both of the Biological Survey research staff, set out plants of the large 

 Pacific coast form of eelgrass and sowed seeds at two localities along 

 the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal near Lewes, Del., "out no trace of the plants 

 ccrald be found when the place was revisited in April 1936. A single 

 plot was set out in soft mad along the edge of the Lewes Canal on April 

 4,. 1936, near the place where a similar planting had been made the 

 previous season, and the bed was protected hy wire. The plot was not 

 revisited until December 1936, at v;hich time no sign of the plant was 

 apparent. 



Rehoboth Beach, "Hehoboth, Del . -'-A planting of the broad-leaved 

 Pacific eelgrass was made here on April 4, 1936. The plot vias located 



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