NEWS, NOTES AND WANTS. 95 



plants are to be looked upon as peculiarly Texan, species of 

 Atlantic forest affinity, "modified by climatic conditions into 

 forms constantly different from the Atlantic ones." Thus the 

 live oak on arid hills becomes a dwarfed shrub, called Quercus 

 fusifomiis by the systematists, and the white oak {Quercus 

 alba) becomes a thin oak under the name of Q. hreviloba on hi oh 

 divides, while the red-bud and hackberry are so nearly identical 

 with those of the East as to suggest genetic relationship. 



The rapidity of the invasion of the grass-land of the Rio 

 Grande Plain by chapai*ral species from the Mexican Plateau is 

 both striking and well attested. Living men remember ^^'hen 

 hundreds of square miles now covered by mesquite and other 

 brush were open prairie. Thus the geographical origin and the 

 actual paths of migration of important elements of the Texan 

 flora are, to all practical purposes, under direct and continuous 

 observation, and the record preser^^ed in the papers of Professor 

 Bray will make it possible to continue such observations and rec- 

 ords to an indefinite future. 



The emphasis laid on edaphic factors is timely and indi- 

 cates a hopeful trend. Eighteen well marked edaphic forma- 

 tions with their characteristic associations are enumerated. In 

 spite of tyj)ographical slips, Avhich mar its pages, this bulletin 

 is of unusual value and should be known and read by teachers 

 and students far beyond the limits of the State to which it spe- 

 cially relates. 



Professor Walter B. Barrows, in an article on 'Tact and 

 Fancy in Bird Migration" (Mich. Acad. Sci., 1906) brings out 

 some cases that have a bearing on the transportation of seeds to 

 long distances. Thus the Golden Plover, reared in ISTorthwest- 

 ern Arctic iVmerica, migrates to the pampas of Argentina, and 

 even to Patagonia, 6,000 or 7.000 miles from their point of de- 

 parture, going by the way of Labrador and Brazil and returning 

 by quite another route. The ^ightha^^•k, which remains in our 

 jSTorthern States just long enough to rear its young, winters in 

 Central America or Brazil, and in some cases as far north as 

 Paraguay and Patagonia. From these and similar well-attested 



