FOREST RKCON'NAISSAXCE OF THE DELAWARE I'KXIXSLLA 553 



a little in accordance with Besley's Maryland estimates, is based solely 

 on the writer's field-work on 13 different days, comprising about 530 

 miles of travel by rail in 20 hours and 140 miles of walking in 58 hours, 

 or about a minute for each square mile of forest, on the average. How 

 accurate or inaccurate the results are can be seen after the forests of 

 the same area have been analyzed by counting the trees on numerous 

 selected areas, in the manner usually employed by foresters, provided 

 this is done before much more change takes place. 



The results being hardly accurate enough yet to warrant assigning 

 percentages to each species in each region, a system of easily remem- 

 bered letters for groups of percentages is used instead. The leters are not 

 only easy to remember on account of the words they stand for, but their 

 alphabetical order corresponds with the degree of abundance they indi- 

 cate. All percentages over 20 are given in figures, those from 10 to 20 

 indicated by A (abundant), from 3 to 10 by C (common), from i to 3 

 by F (frequent), from o.i to i by O (occasional), from .01 to o.i by 

 R (rare), and those less than .01 by S (scarce). If desired, one might 

 go still farther and have V for very scarce, X for exceedingly or ex- 

 tremely scarce, etc. It is not proposed that these letters should always 

 be used hereafter for exactly the same percentages, but the scheme is 

 merely put forward as a suggestion, with the hope that it may be tried 

 elsewhere and improved upon.^^ 



AMiere the occurrence of a given species in a given region is doubtful, 

 an interrogation point is used, and where it is believed to be entirely 

 absent the space is left blank. Species that do not rank above rare in 

 any region are omitted entirely, to save space. Where a species is be- 

 lieved to be more abundant in one region than in any of the others, 

 its letter in that column is printed in heavier type. (This was done with 

 the figures in my forest census of Alabama^*' about three years ago, and 

 is even more important in the case of letters, for percentages as far 

 apart as 11 and 19 are indicated by the same letter.) Only trees that 

 ordinarily reach merchantable size (say a foot in diameter) are listed in 

 the table, for the percentages are intended to be based on volume, and it 

 is difficult to compare the relative abundance of trees differing greatly 

 in size in hasty reconnaissance work where no counts or measurements 

 are made. But if it seemed desirable, one could easily put the small trees 

 in the same table and use small letters for them.^' 



^^ See discussion of a somewhat similar terminology for birds b}' J. D. Kuser and 

 others in Science for June 14, Aug. 2 and 30, 1912. 



^^ Proc. Soc. Am. Foresters, // : 208-214. 1916. 



^' For a method of treating trees of different sizes quantitatively in reconnais- 

 sance Avork, see 6th Ann. Rep. Fla. Geol. Surv. (1914), p. 178. 



