296 Forestry Quarterly 



The Development of the Vegetation of New York State. By 

 Dr. William Bray. Technical Publication No. 3, the New York 

 State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. Syracuse, 

 N. Y. November, 1915. Pp. 186. 



The object of the publication of the above title is to present 

 the vegetation of the State of New York from the standpoint of 

 its origin and development, and to set forth the factors, general 

 and particular, which have differentiated it into its present aspects. 

 The dynamics of plant life is the major motif of the bulletin. 

 The present vegetation is used only to illustrate the adjustments 

 to climatic conditions and the various stages in the developmental 

 sequence. After devoting some twenty pages to an explanation of 

 what vegetation is and how it works, the author passes to a con- 

 sideration of its geological history from the Carboniferous period 

 to the present, naturally stressing the profound influence of glacia- 

 tion. This discussion covers about twenty pages. The considera- 

 tion of the present zonal relationships of the present flora 

 occupies around forty pages of the bulletin. Thus, about one- 

 half of the bulletin is devoted to giving the reader an insight into 

 causes, mostly climatic, which have fashioned the vegetation of the 

 State in its present mould. Most of the remaining portion of the 

 publication is concerned with filling in the details of the mosaic, 

 that is, with the succession of vegetation, due to local factors, in 

 the various habitats. This is included under two general head- 

 ings : The developmental sequence of vegetation upon a sub- 

 stratum having an excess of water, and the development of vege- 

 tation upon a substratum subject to prevailing water deficit. The 

 mean of these conditions, the prevailing one in the State, receives 

 only about ten pages of generalized discussion. This dispropor- 

 tionate presentation is intentional on the part of the author, in 

 order to emphasize the developmental nature of vegetation, and 

 he clearly shows that succession in the two general habitats men- 

 tioned above leads to the establishment of mesophytic vegetation. 

 One fears, however, that this method of presentation will leave 

 the general reader with the impression that succession 

 and developmental relations of vegetation come to a complete 

 standstill in the climax type. As a matter of fact, vegetation 

 is never stable. The dynamics in the climax type varies only in 



