5 6o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



cording the occurrence of Isoetes drummondii and Phylloglossum 

 drummondii from South Australia, furnishes an interesting 

 account of the plant association in which they occur in the 

 National Park, Belair. The habitat is an alluvial flat which is 

 dry in summer and water-logged in winter. A list of sixty- 

 seven phanerogams is given, comprising three trees, two shrubs, 

 seven under-shrubs, nineteen annuals, and thirty-six herbaceous 

 perennials. Of these last no fewer than twenty-five are 

 geophytes with subterranean storage organs, whilst fifteen of 

 the nineteen annuals are ephemeral. 



J. Bar has recently described and mapped the vegetation 

 of the Val Onsernone (Zurich, 191 8). This region is one of 

 high rainfall and the soils are almost exclusively siliceous. 

 The major part of the area described, to an altitude of over 

 2,000 m., is occupied by forest and scrub. On the northern 

 exposures the zonation is Chestnut (250-900 m.), Beech (800- 

 1,100 m.), Silver Fir (1,150-1,300 m.), Spruce (1,200-1,700 m.), 

 and Larch (1,600-1,900 m.). On the southern exposures the 

 Chestnut attains a higher altitude (1,000 m.), and so does the 

 Beech (1,700 m.), thus extending throughout the altitudinal 

 range of the woods of Silver Fir and Spruce, though the latter 

 locally forms woods from 1,400-1,750 m. The Beech is followed 

 by the Larch up to 2,100 m. Birch woods are local, especially 

 on northern slopes, from 600-1,200 m., where the soil is poor 

 but well supplied with humus. Lime (Tilia cordata), too, forms 

 local woods, in the Chestnut and Beech zones, on precipitous 

 rocky slopes and, locally also, Oak woods of Quercus sessiliflora 

 and Quercus pubescens are found up to 1,400 m. Hazel 

 scrub due to grazing of goats is a conspicuous feature near 

 inhabited areas up to 1,600 m. Various types of Heath are 

 described, dominated respectively by Sarothamnus scoparius, 

 Erica carnea, Calluna vulgaris, Salix herbacea, Loiseleuria 

 procumbens, and Vaccinium spp. The dominant species of the 

 meadow types include Bromus erectus, Brachypodium pinnatum, 

 Festuca ovina s.spp., Nardus stricta, Agrostis tenuis, Calama- 

 grostis arundinacea, Trisetum flavescens, Cynosurus cristatus, 

 and Poa alpina. 



Economic. — The improvement of Hill pasture is dealt with 

 by Dr. W. G. Smith in the Scottish Journal of Agriculture (July 

 191 8). Under this heading is included pasture land that is 

 never ploughed and is moreover unenclosed. Such areas tend 



