282 THE PLANT WORLD. 



appear to be due mainly to organic substances washed from 

 the bark of the tree by rain waters and left by them in the 

 soil. Deleterious substances may also be excreted from the 

 roots of trees and, in certain cases, exercise an influence upon 

 surrounding plants. 



Bureau of Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C. 



COLLECTION OF ALASKAN PLANTS. 

 By C. H. Ascuith. 



A very complete collection of Alaskan plants is being 

 assembled by a man who has never in his life opened a book 

 of botany, and who has been guided in his collections solely 

 by his quickness of eye and his tenaciousness of memory. 

 Gustave Gervais, a prospector of Whitehorse, during the 

 summer of 1905 and that of 1906, has accumulated a series 

 of Alaska's plants numbering 1540 species, of which about 

 50 are said to be new to science. He expects to add fully 

 500 more during the esason of 1907, 



Gustave Gervais was born in Quebec some forty years 

 ago, and went north with the gold rush of 1897. He 

 He dropped off at Whitehorse, where he found indications 

 of copper which induced him to give up further journeying 

 Into the eldorado beyond. So he built a cabin and settled 

 at the headwaters of the Yukon, where he has made a com- 

 fortable stake and has justified his earlier judgment. 



Gervais is not at all an educated botanist but has a 

 strong love for the wild flowers, grasses, shrubs and trees 

 which he meets in profusion on his prospecting trips, and he 

 has made a fad of collecting these. Every form that is new 

 to him is taken carefully back to his cabin and mounted. 

 Following this hobby only as an amusement, he has been 

 able to bring together a collection of mounted plants so large 



