

THE RELATIVE TRANSPIRATION OF WHITE PINE 



SEEDLINGS 1 



GEORGE P. BURNS 



University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 



The study of plant ecology and the study of many phases of 

 agriculture and forestry have emphasized most clearly the neces- 

 sity for a scientific study of the habitat and the importance of 

 the habitat upon the distribution and development of the plant. 



The ecologist works with a group of plants which forms the 

 society of plants in a given habitat. This society is named 

 after one or more of the leading plants in the society — maple- 

 beech, heath, Carex filiformis, etc. The plant society of the ag- 

 riculturalist and the forester usually consists of one species or 

 variety growirig in larger numbers. 



The ecologist attempts to work out the distribution of plants 

 and to discover the laws which determine such distribution. He 

 seeks to locate the present region where conditions are best suited 

 for the development of any given species or plant. He has 

 determined that the requirements in the habitat are more and 

 more rigid the farther a plant gets from such region — its center 

 of distribution. 



Such data are of the greatest importance to the agriculturalist 

 and the forester, as they indicate the possible regions of growth 

 for any plant and would furnish the basis for planning experi- 

 mental work. 



Much of the work of the early ecologist has been descriptive, 

 and the value of each contribution depends largely upon the 

 training and ability of the individual writer — thus bringing in a 

 very large margin of error. 



A second group of contributions begins with a detailed and 



1 Read at the Atlanta meeting of the Botanical Society of America, 1913. 



1 



THE PLANT WORLD, VOL. 18, NO. 1, 1915 



