592 BOWMAN— ECOLOGY AND 



whose wide experience in plant ecology and helpful guidance in the 

 preparation of this paper have been of great assistance, especially 

 on the geographic and ecologic aspects of the work. The author's 

 thanks are also due the colleagues of Professor Harshberger in the 

 University of Pennsylvania for their very kind help and sugges- 

 tions, to Dr. J. Hepburn, of the U. S. Food Research Laboratory, 

 for his expert advice in regard to enzymes, to Mr. Robert E. Deng- 

 ler, Fellow in Greek, for his assistance in translating the classic and 

 Renaissance references, to Mr. W. R. Taylor for aid in making the 

 illustrations, to Dr. A. G. Mayer, of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, for many helpful suggestions, and to Engineer John 

 Alills, and Captain L. M. Wilson, of the Tortugas Laboratory for 

 their patience, consideration and excellent practical aid rendered on 

 many field excursions in the Gulf. 



History. 



The historical references to the subject of these studies are 

 quite varied and reach far back into antiquity. Just as perhaps all 

 science may be traced back to the Greeks, so in this instance we can 

 turn to them for some early knowledge of the existence and peculiar 

 habits of this plant, the Rhizophora mangle. 



The earliest reference in ancient manuscripts is contained in 

 the chronicle of Nearchus (325 B.C.). This old Greek sea-captain 

 was the commander of Alexander the Great's fleet and fragments 

 of his observations have come down to the present through the writ- 

 ings of Arrian. Nearchus sailed from the Indus Delta on the 21st 

 of September, 325 B.C., and arrived in Susa, Persia, February, 324 

 B.C., shortly after Alexander himself had reached there by march- 

 ing overland. 



On this jounrney Nearchus- describes the habitat of the man- 

 groves. Whether these trees are the Avicennia or Rhizophora 

 mucronata, both of which grow in the region traversed by Nearchus, 

 is not quite certain, but, by the description of the species in Theo- 

 phrastus^ and in the light of Bretzl's* recent work, in which the 



- Nearchus, " Arr Anab.," VI., 6, 7. 



3 Theophrastus, " Historia Plantarum," IV., 7, 4-7. 



■^Bretzl, H., Botanische Forschiingen dcs Alcxandcrzugcs, 1903. 



