26 
BULLETIN 465, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
but they attain a much larger size. The largest specimen exam- 
ined by the writer was 2 inches in its longest diameter and 1 inch 
thick. Including the bud and a short stalk at the base, the entire 
tuber may measure as much as 5 inches in length. The mature 
tubers of plants from the Northwest are more or less flattened, the 
shape being comparable to that of the ordinary edible crab. The 
smaller tubers are more nearly spherical (varying to ovoid), and this 
is the shape of even the largest tubers of eastern plants that the 
writer has seen. The sheaths of the tuber, being of a darker color 
than the body, are conspicuous. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Sagittaria Jatijolia is found from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, 
its range covering practically the whole United States (fig. 26). 
Areas from which it apparently has not been reported are peninsular 
Florida, the southern two-thirds of Louisiana and Texas. Xew Mexico, 
Arizona, and southern California. The northern limit of its range is 
marked bv the following localities : Vancouver Island. Saskatchewan 
Fig. 2 A.— Various shapes of wapato leaves. (About one-tenth natural size.) 
River, and southern Ontario and Quebec. Sagittaria on folia is con- 
fined to States from Michigan and Kansas westward. Its range is 
largely included in that of S. latifolia, although it has been collected 
in Xew Mexico. The two species are distinguishable with certainty 
only upon the basis of mature seeds, and for all practical purposes 
may be considered as one. 
PROPAGATION". 
The wapato may be transplanted by means of both seeds and tubers, 1 
but the latter are the most reliable and give the quickest results. 
They may be set with the bud just beneath the surface in mud bottom 
under a foot of water or preferably less. The plants will grow in 
1 It is probable that tubers of Sagittaria chinensis, which are in market wherever there 
is a large Chinese colony, and which arc also on sale by seedsmen, may be substituted 
for those of wapato with satisfactory results. 
