35 



During August, while on vacation, the curator of plant breed- 

 ing visited the genetic departments of Cornell University, Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, University of 

 Minnesota and South Dakota State College. 



During the year, as collaborator for the department of genetics 

 of *' Botanical Abstracts," about thirty abstracts of genetic papers 

 have been prepared by the curator. He has also acted on a com- 

 mittee of the American Society of Naturalists for securing a uni- 

 form code of genetic symbols and nomenclature. 



Dr. R. C. Benedict, resident investigator, has continued his in- 

 vestigations of variation in the genus of the so-called *' Boston . 



NepJ, 



Some of the recent results were embodied 



Ncphrolcp 



)} 



read before 



the Botanical Society of America at Chicago during the last w^eek 

 of December. 



L 



Ecology and Plant Geography. — An account of the continua- 

 tion of the studies of the curator of plants on the vegetation of 

 Mt. Marcy and of Long Island, Gardiner's Island, and of the 

 endemic flora of the Bahama Islands, and the beginning of a 

 comprehensive ecological and phytogeographical survey of Mt. 

 Desert Island, Maine, is given in the appended report of the 

 curator. A report of the Mt. Marcy survey appeared during the 

 year in three installments in the new journal, Ecology, published 

 by the Garden. The institutions cooperating in this study were, 

 besides the Botanic Garden, the Roosevelt Wild Life Forest Ex- 



I 



periment Station of the New York State College of Forestry at 

 Syracuse University, the Vermont State Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, and the Ecological Society of America. Valuable assist- 

 ance in the field arrangements, with the Ausable Club as a base, 

 were rendered bv Mr. Alfred T. White, chairman of the Botanic 



One of the more significant facts 

 that emerged froni the investigation is that the alpine plants and 



animals above the timber line are not encroaching on the region 

 below, but the lowland forms are slowly but surely invading the 

 higher altitudes. Valuable quantitative data are also being col- 

 lected with a view to throwing additional light on the causes of a 

 timber line on mountains. 



■ 



Cooperation zvith the Federal Government, — The cooperative 



Garden Governing Committee. 



