24 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HISTORY SURVEY [Bull. 



geography of the state would be of great interest to all intelligent 

 citizens, and particularly to the teachers in our schools. 



77. Botany 



The labors of the Connecticut Botanical Society have given 

 to us a list of the flowering plants of the state, and of the ferns 

 and their allies. This paper affords much information in re- 

 gard to the geographical and topographical distribution of par- 

 ticular species of plants. An appropriate line of investigation, 

 and one in regard to which it may be hoped that the Survey may 

 be able to publish important papers in the future, would be the 

 more extended study of the distribution of plants with reference 

 to altitude, geological formation, distance from the sea, tempera- 

 ture, and rainfall, and the grouping of plants into plant societies 

 in different areas — in short, the study of what is now called the 

 ecology of plants. 



The systematic botany of the flowering plants has been com- 

 paratively well worked out for this region of country. Much 

 less has been done in regard to the flowerless plants, and par- 

 ticularly in regard to the lower classes of flowerless plants. The 

 paper of Professor Evans and Mr. Nichols on the mosses and 

 liverworts, those of Professor White on the larger fungi, those 

 of Dr. Clinton on the microscopic fungi, and that of Professor 

 Conn and Mrs. Webster on the fresh-water algae, are a good 

 beginning in this direction. But there are a number of groups 

 of the lower flowerless plants for whose study very little material 

 is accessible to students or even to teachers in Connecticut. In- 

 teresting groups which should be treated in future bulletins 

 of the Survey are the lichens and the marine algae. 



777. Zoology 



Professor Conn's paper on the protozoa makes a good be- 

 ginning of the study of the life of our fresh waters. In future 

 years attention should be given to other groups of fresh-water 

 organisms; for instance, the mollusks, worms, Crustacea, and 

 fishes. 



No general work dealing with the marine fauna of the Con- 

 necticut coast has been published since the very valuable paper 

 by Verrill and Smith on the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard 



