36 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



be produced artificially by crossing and may be accounted for 

 not as mutations or atavists but as a natural consequence, 

 following a combination of the units. Thus has this conception 

 of unit characters revolutionized the whole manner of thinking 

 and since it is happily capable of experimental proof it has served 

 to place the great problem of the amelioration o* races in an 

 entirely new light. 



March 25th, 191 1, at the home of Mr. R. B. Whyte, members 

 present sixteen. Mr. Whyte was the speaker, and gave an inter- 

 esting account of a recent visit to Florida and Georgia, and the 

 impressions gathered during two weeks observations. His 

 observations were not confined to the botanical features of the 

 country, but whether applying to the botany, the horticulture, 

 the country itself, or its people, the impression which they 

 almost uniformly gave was one of poverty. The soil, except 

 in a few instances, which were referred to, supported very 

 sparse crops or natural vegetation, being in places almost 

 pure silica, and generally short of soil moisture. Among the 

 few herbaceous plants growing wild were lupines and what was 

 taken to be a magnolia, and the principal trees were cypress, 

 magnolia, live oak and Georgia pine. Close grass turf such 

 as we know is never seen, as the Bermuda grass which takes the 

 place of our grasses there, grows always in tufts. 



Of particular interest to a northern botanist were the 

 cypress "knees" which are produced where these trees grow in 

 water. Also the "black moss" or Tillandsia which festoons the 

 branches of trees everywhere, and gives them a funereal aspect, 

 which becomes very depressing. With regard to the Georgia or 

 "long-leaf" pine, it was observed that its seedlings, unlike those 

 of our white pine, were able to start freely without any protection 

 or shading whatever. 



Notwithstanding the poverty-stricken appearance of its 

 agriculture, this part of the South is enjoying somewhat of a land 

 boom. Large plantations of pecan nuts, and of oranges and 

 grape fruits are being set out. Within recent years many 

 superior varieties of pecans have been obtained, and their pro- 

 pagation promises to become an important source of revenue 

 for the South. 



Specimens of various varieties of pecan nuts were shown, 

 as were also the Tillandsia, a seedling Georgia pine, and a sample 

 of the sponges obtained in a large commercial way in the Gulf 

 fisheries. 



H.G. 



