No. 2, June, 1921] TAXONOMY OF VASCULAR PLANTS 223 



by Columella and Catone. It has been ascribed to the untimely cultivation of a soil, moist 

 in the upper strata and dry in the lower, after a recent limited rainfall. The plants growing 

 therein bear very few seeds and assume a rigid and starved appearance some time after the 

 cultivation. The present author after long periods of study has not succeeded in reproducing 

 the condition experimentally. — A. Bonazzi. 



1537. Ogg, William Gammie, and James Hendrick. Studies of a Scottish drift soil. 

 Part II. Jour. Agric. Sci. 10: 333-342. 1920. — Part II of this series deals with the absorp- 

 tive power of the soil and its mechanical fractions. The soil studied is a glacial drift soil 

 from granitic rocks and is in a comparatively undecomposed state. It contains no carbonate 

 of lime and has a comparatively small clay fraction; about 9 per cent of organic matter is pres- 

 ent. This soil, known as "Craibstone" soil, has a considerable absorptive power for ammonia 

 from a solution of sulphate of ammonia. The absorptive power per unit weight of the frac- 

 tions increases with the decrease in size of the particles, reaching a maximum in clay. Fine 

 silt and ordinary silt have a high absorptive power, probably partly due to organic matter. 

 It appears probable that both the amount of surface exposed and the chemical nature of the 

 soil are important in determining its absorptive power. The small amount of clay present 

 indicates that much of the absorptive power is due to silt. [See following abstract.] — V. H. 

 Young. 



1538. Ogg, William Gammie, and James Hendrick. Studies of a Scottish drift soil. 

 Part III. Jour. Agric. Sci. 10: 343-357. Sfig. 1920. — This section deals with the absorptive 

 power of powdered granite and a comparison with "Craibstone" soil. It was shown that 

 powdered granite has a considerable adsorptive power which compares favorably with that of 

 "Craibstone" soil [see preceding entry]. Asborption does not increase proportionately with 

 the increase in area of finer fractions; it increases at a lower rate. The effect of ignition is to 

 reduce the absorptive power and this eff^ect is more marked with soil fractions. Absorbed 

 ammonia is only gradually washed out by water and cannot be completely removed in this way. 

 Absorption by powdered granite and little-weathered soils appears to be principally a phe- 

 nomenon of adsorption. [See preceding abstract.] — V. H. Young. 



TAXONOMY OF VASCULAR PLANTS 



J. M. Greenman, Editor 

 E. B. Patson, Assistant Editor 



(See also in this issue Entries 769, 953, 957, 1085, 1212, 1446) 



GENERAL 



1539. Barnhart, John Hendley. The so-called generic names of Ehrhart's Phyto- 

 phylacium. Rhodora 22: 180-182. 1920. — A criticism of the use of Ehrhart's so-called 

 generic names, as such, by certain American authors. The present author shows by quota- 

 tions from Ehrhart, and from Oeder who first originated the idea of such names, that these 

 were first proposed as "nomina usualia" for non-botanical conversational use and "had no 

 connection or relation to classification, to genus, or to specific relationship." — James P. 

 Poole. 



1540. Burkill, I. H. Notes on Cola trees in the Economic Garden, Singapore. Gardens' 

 Bull. Straits Settlements 2:74-86. 1 fig. 1918.— The author gives a history of the Cola 

 trees in the above Garden, where they were introduced in 1879, their growth and production. 

 He adopts the nomenclature of Chevalier and Perrot as expoimded by them in "Vegetaux 

 utiles de I'Afrique tropicale francaise," VI, 1911. They claim that the Sterculia acuminata 

 Beauv. of Benin is a small bushy tree 7 or 8 feet in height and does not produce the Kola Nut 

 of Sierre Leone, which is the Kola of commerce, or but a very small part of it; that the tree 

 which produces the larger part of the Kola Nut of Sierre Leone is 40 feet in height and is 



