496 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
growing beyond a depth of 5-5.5 meters. Where the shore is 
protected by points of land from the action of the waves, plants 
were found close up to the beach; at exposed points they did not 
grow at a depth of less than 1.5 meters. 
For convenience the lake was divided into 44 sections or sta¬ 
tions (see map), and the plants were gathered and recorded at 
the different depths for each station. 
Pig. 1. Map of Lake Mendota with shaded area along shore showing 
distribution of plants. The 6-meter depth is shown by a 
broken line. The numbers indicate the stations referred 
to in table 2. 
The distribution of plants in the lake is governed, as would be 
expected, by the conditions at the different stations. Plants along 
the exposed shores were few, both in number of species and of in¬ 
dividuals, while in protected bays the number of individuals was 
high. 
The character of the bottom also determines the kind and num¬ 
ber of species to some extent. Chara grows best in the sand, al¬ 
though Pieters (1) states that in Lake St. Claire, Michigan, it 
