Current Comment. 127 



gestions based on experience in the eastern states, in California 

 and elsewhere. — V. M. Spalding. 



Vegetation of the Galapagos Islands. — Stewart accom- 

 panied the expedition of the California Academy 

 of Sciences to the Galapagos Islands in 1905, 

 and has written an extended paper * chiefly devoted 

 to listing the flora of the islands. A detailed tabular scheme 

 shows the distribution of the flora among the 20 princij^al 

 islands of the group from whic^ the author deduces that there 

 is a strong probability that the islands were formerly fused 

 into a smaller group, or perhaps a single island. The num- 

 ber of the species representative of the several genera and families 

 of continental ])lants is so small that the hypothesis of a former 

 connection of the Galapagos with the mainland does not appear 

 to be valid. A brief description of the vegetation of the islands 

 calls attention to four types occupying successive altitudes 

 in the larger islands. The coasts are fringed with deserts in 

 which the aborescent columnar cactus, Cereus sclerocar pus , and 

 some eight other cacti are conspicuous, with species of Bur sera 

 and Croton. A ' ' Transition P^egion" and a ' ' Moist Region' ' are 

 described, in which the vegetation approaches the character 

 of tropical rain forest. At altitudes of 2000 to .3000 feet the 

 the forest is replaced by" Grassy Regions "chiefly covered with a 

 species of Paspahim. The operation of several climatic factors 

 is touched upon, and the invasion of tlie recent lavas bv vegeta- 

 tion is brieflv described... — F. S. 



NOTES AND COMMENT. 

 A distinct sense of pleasure is given by every writer on 

 elementary and secondary school work who decries the pre- 

 valent excessive attention to method, which so often leaves 

 matter as a consideration of very secondary importance. Pro- 

 fessor Suzzallo, af Teachers College, Columbia University lias 

 written a critical review of recent tendencies in the teaching of 

 arithmetic in the current number of the Teachers College record. 



♦Stewart, Alban, A Botanical Survey of the Galapagos Islands. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. IV 

 Ser.. Vol. 1. pp 7-288, I map, 18 pis.. 1911. 



