May 19, 1921 proceedings: botanical society 243 



ciety's representative, Dr. Hitchcock, to bring this to the attention of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences. 



Mr. Pierce called attention to the series of articles by Dr. John Harsh- 

 BERGER, which began to appear in the October, 1920, number of the Garden 

 Magazine on Old gardens oj Pennsylvania. These articles dealing with the 

 early botanists of Pennsylvania and their collections should be of interest 

 to all students of botanical history. 



Mr. Lewton called attention to the new edition of Dr. MarcellE Hardy's 

 Geography of plants, a copy of which was passed around for inspection. 



Regtdar program 



H. L. Shantz: Natural vegetation of Africa. (Illustrated with lantern 

 slides.) 



The vegetation of Africa ranges from the absolute desert of the southwest 

 coast and portions of the Sahara, through desert shrub, desert grass, desert 

 grass and acacia, and acacia tall grass to the great tropical savannas and 

 in the Congo basin to the tropical rain forests, as higher elevations, moun- 

 tain grass land and mountain forests appear. The distribution of these more 

 important types was outlined and the agricultural potentiality of the land 

 occupied by each type discussed and compared with somewhat similar types 

 in the United States. Much of Africa is high, cool and dry, and is occupied 

 by desert or semi-desert types, and only a relatively small portion by tropical 

 jungles. The more important agricultural crops are corn, cassava, grain 

 sorghums, bananas, beans and rice. 



Ivar Tidestrom : Notes on the flora of the Iberian Peninstda. (Illustrated 

 with lantern slides.) 



The flora of the Iberian Peninsula is richer in species than any other of the 

 European floras. The reason for this great wealth of species is the geo- 

 graphical position of Spain, the high elevation of the land surface above the 

 sea-level, the various mountain ranges, and the proximity to Africa. 



The littoral from Lisbon to Valencia, including the valley of the Guadal- 

 quivir, is semi-tropical, and appears to be analogous to the Pacific Coast 

 region from San Francisco southward to Arizona, including the valleys 

 between the Coast Range and Sierra Nevada. The Castilian and North 

 African plateaus have a great number of plants in common, which fact tends 

 to prove that there was a land bridge between the two continents at some 

 remote time — a fact already noted by paleontologists. 



The meteorological conditions of these plateaus show resemblances to 

 those of the southwestern United States where the minimum temperature 

 does not fall below — 17° C. The general aspect of the plateaus and moun- 

 tains is that of our western country, and the types of plants are similar. 

 The upper belts of the mountains in Spain have a northern flora typical of 

 the aspen, spruce, and alpine belts of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra 

 Nevada. 



The cultivated plants of Spain thrive equally well in our southwestern 

 states. Of the trees in cultivation, the Lombardy poplar is the most inter- 

 esting. Community planting of this tree has been attempted in northern 

 Spain, where plantations now exist for the purpose of supplying timber and 

 pulp. 



R. G. Pierce, Recording Secretary. 



