ETYM Old Eng. mersch, as. mersc, from mere lake. Related to Mere pool, and cf. Marish, Morass.
Low-lying wet land with grassy vegetation; usually is a transition zone between land and water; SYN. marshland, fen.
Low-lying wetland. Freshwater marshes are common wherever groundwater, surface springs, streams, or run-off cause frequent flooding or more or less permanent shallow water. A marsh is alkaline whereas a bog is acid. Marshes develop on inorganic silt or clay soils. Rushes are typical marsh plants. Large marshes dominated by papyrus, cattail, and reeds, with standing water throughout the year, are commonly called swamps. Near the sea, salt marshes may form.

(1831-1899) US paleontologist. As official paleontologist for the US Geological Survey from 1882, he identified many previously unknown fossil species and was an early devotee of Charles Darwin. He wrote Odontornithes 1880, Dinocerata 1884, and Dinosaurs of North America 1896.
Marsh was born in Lockport, New York, and educated at Yale University and in Germany. As first professor of paleontology in the US at the Yale faculty, he mounted fossil-hunting expeditions to the West from 1870. He served as president of the American Academy of Sciences 1883–95.

(1899-1982) New Zealand detective fiction writer. Her first detective novel A Man Lay Dead 1934 introduced her protagonist Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn.