440 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



arising from the sowing showed the greatest variety of forms from 

 normal to those showing from the start the serpentine type. The most 

 striking, pictured, shows at the base a number of sparely twigged 

 branches; from the year 1913 it has grown without any branches and 

 for the five years following the annual shoots were 14, 16, 12, 14, 7 

 inches, the total height being 10 feet. Other measurements are re- 

 corded, making the average annual shoot of the branchless plant 

 10 inches. (Since no precautions were taken to prevent cross- fertili- 

 zation the Mendelian law could not be tested.) A specimen of pro- 

 nounced serpentine spruce type was transplanted in 191 5, which 

 changed its habit completely in that on main stem and branches 

 densely bushy shoots developed ; the original specimen transplanted, 

 also in 19 15, showed the same change, suggesting that the transplanting 

 was the cause of the change. 



An account of branchless Abies is to be found in Forestry Quarterly, XIV, 

 P- 323- 



Schweizerische Zeitschrift fiir Forstwesen, January-February, 1919, p. 10. 



Freda Detmers describes two new varieties of 



Acer Acer rubrum L. One, which he calls var. viride, 



rubrum is so called from its most striking feature, its 



Varieties greenness. The leaves develop early, from one 



to two weeks before those of surrounding trees, 



and are green as soon as they unfold. Samaras are also always green. 



The other variety , rubro carpum, seemingly based upon one specimen 



distinguishes itself, and making it conspicuous, even among red maples, 



by the deep red of the buds, young twigs, flowers, mature fruit, and 



unfolding leaves. 



Ohio Journal of Science, February. 1919, pp. 235-7. 



SOIL, WATER, AND CLIMATE 



R. F. Griggs gives an account of the effects 

 Effect on vegetation of the eruption of the crater of 



of Katmai (situated in an uninhabited wilderness 



Volcanic in Alaska near Kadiak) in July, 19 12. Summar- 



Bruption izing the result of the tremendous cataclysm, we 



learn that 7,300 square miles were covered with 

 ash so deeply as to destroy the smaller plants ; that rains bearing sul- 

 phuric acid in such concentration as to destroy gardens occurred as 



