ELEVEN IMPORTANT WILD-DUCK POODS. 
25 
DESCRIPTION OF PLANT. 
The stems of coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum) are thickly 
clothed with round, dense masses of foliage (figs. 21 and 22), which in 
shape amply justify the common name 
SO widely used in the South, and which 
is here adopted for the plant. Coontail 
is a submerged plant, but only excep- 
tionally is it attached to the bottom, as 
it has no roots ; it usually grows in rather 
quiet waters from 2 to 10 feet deep. 
The leaves are composed of slender but 
rather stiff filaments, twice or thrice 1 
forked, and sparingly furnished with 
small acute projections. They grow in 
whorls of from 5 to 12, and are usually 
much crowded on the upper part of the 
stem. 
The fruit of coontail (fig. 23) is com- 
posed of a rather large, flattened seed, 
wedge-shaped at one end and rounded 
at the other, inclosed in a thin covering 
which bears various tubercles on the 
surface and spines on the margin. A 
common form has one spine at the apex 
and one at each basal angle of the fruit. 
One may examine many plants without 
finding fruit ; nevertheless, the frequency 
with which ducks find it proves that a fig. 22.— coontau. a diffuse form. 
good crop is produced. Coontail is known also as horn wort, horn- 
weed, morass-weed, coontail moss, fish-blankets, and June grass. 
* DISTRIBUTION. 
Coontail is practically cosmopol- 
itan and occurs throughout all but 
the extreme northern parts of North 
America. 
PROPAGATION. 
Mm 
-w 
Pieces of coontail broken off from 
the parent plant promptly make 
new colonies, a characteristic which 
makes transplanting easy. Care 
need be taken only to see that the 
plants do not lose their vitality 
either through drying or fermentation during shipment. 
Plant in quiet water. As the plant has no roots, it is enabled to 
thrive over hard or sandy bottoms where many other plants can not 
establish themselves. 
Fig. 23. — Seeds and fruil of coontail. 
