NOTES AND COMMENT 81 



study of cliinatic conditions is being carried on in thirteen localities 

 in C'oloi-ado, California and Idaho, with a view to correlating the cli- 

 matic characteristics with the different forest types which occupy these 

 places. Studies are also in progress on the growth, behavior and man- 

 agement of a nimiber of important connnercial trees. Various economic 

 and statistical studies hav{> lieen carried out; 1800 records of occurrence 

 were added to the distribution data which are being collected; and 

 numerous minor activities were carried on. 



The j''ear 1915 witnessed the establishment of a Branch of Research 

 in the Forest Service, which brings under one administrative direction 

 all of the investigative operations that are being carried on at the 

 experiment stations and at the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, 

 as well as the investigations in grazing problems, and the recording of 

 distributional data. 



Dr. Howard H. M. Bowman, of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 reports (Science, 43: 244) the finding of two species of seed-plants at 

 depths of 96 and 108 feet in the Gulf of Mexico, near the Dry Tortugas. 

 The plants in question ai*e species of Halophila, belonging to the wholly 

 aquatic family Hydrocharidaceae. Their occurrence at this depth 

 probably establishes a new record in the bathic distribution of flowering 

 plants, and is of great interest, even if we prefer not to accompany 

 Dr. Bowman in his conclusion that he has hereby discovered some 

 additional evidence for the subsidence of the floor of the Gulf in that 

 vicinity. 



