n6 Alaskan Science Conference 



toward dealing with the vegetation as well as with the classifi- 

 cation of the components of that vegetation paralleled the up- 

 surge in support of plant ecology in the continental United 

 States that followed the work of Cowles in the region around 

 the southern end of Lake Michigan (5). Some of the early 

 ecological work in Alaska was done by W. S. Cooper, whose 

 interest in, and report about, the relationship between plants 

 and the influence of glaciers stimulated others to investigate vari- 

 ous aspects of the ecological complex in Alaska (4). Cooper's 

 interest in Alaskan botany continued for many years and re- 

 sulted in repeated trips to Alaska and the publication of several 

 papers dealing with the ecological aspects of Alaskan plants 

 growing near glaciers. Other workers have continued to sup- 

 port this trend, some investigating the present position and 

 composition of vegetational complexes, others interesting them- 

 selves in analyses of peat deposits, others studying the ecological 

 inferences to be drawn from assemblages of fossil leaves in 

 alluvial and lacustrine deposits, and still others probing the 

 secrets of the age of forest trees with increment borers or the 

 relationship between plants and frost action. The work of 

 Polunin in Canada, resulting in the publication of three 

 volumes, has considerable value for botanists working on vege- 

 tational problems in Alaska (12, 13, 14). For, although his 

 work was on the Canadian eastern arctic, many of the plants 

 with which he dealt occur in northern Alaska under conditions 

 that make his observations as valid in our area as they are a few 

 degrees farther east. The work on botanical ecology done in 

 boreal North America was ably summarized by Raup (15) in 

 1941, his own work in northern parts of the continent having 

 added a great deal to the sum total of knowledge about boreal 

 and sub-boreal vegetation on our continent. 



The heavy emphasis placed on systematic and ecological work 

 involving plants of Alaska in the foregoing discussion has been 

 prompted by an attempt to block out the chief aspects of 

 botanical research in, and relating to, the territory and not 

 because of any belief that other aspects of botany are unim- 

 portant. The trends in research dealing with the cytology, 



