392 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [November 



Resting buds as indices of ecological types. — Raunki.\er'*5 has regarded the 

 world of vegetation from a someM^hat new view-point, and has developed some 

 ideas that seem of great value. Prevailing ecological classifications have 

 commonly divided vegetation into xerophytic, mesophytic, and hydrophytic 

 groups, in which the foliage organs have been the dominant element. Ratinkiaer 

 thinks that the most rigorous season to which a plant is subjected is the one which 

 should show the most critical ecological structures. Hence he proposes a new 

 classification, based on resting buds and other organs that are most in evidence 

 in rigorous seasons. On this basis five great plant classes are recognized: 

 phanerophytes, whose buds are considerably above the ground (trees and shrubs); 

 chamephytes, whose buds are slightly above the ground; hemicryptophytes, 

 whose buds are at the ground level; cr}^ptophytes, whose buds are hidden in the 

 ground; and theroph}1;es, whose buds persist only in seeds (annuals). The 

 phanerophytes, especially, may be much subdivided: according to size into 

 mega-, meso-, micro-, and nanophanerophytes; according to leaf -fall habit into 

 evergreen and periodically deciduous; according to bud structure into forms 

 with naked or scaly buds. ^Chamephytes may have stems that are erect in favor- 

 able seasons, or stems that are always horizontal. Cryptophytes are divided into 

 geophytes, helophytes (marsh plants), and hydrophytes; geophjtes are further 

 subdivided into rhizome, bulb, root-tuber geophytes, etc. The author remarks 

 on the distribution of these various types in relation to soil and climate. It is his 

 idea that the classification of plant formations can be more readily and scientifi- 

 cally accomplished by the recognition of the above types than on other lines. 

 The reviewer feels that the contribution is of great value, and that perhaps Raun- 

 KJAER has given us the most practical classification of vegetation forms we yet 

 have. It seems a pity, however, that the paper is cumbered with so many new 

 terms. For instance, why say therophyte for annual? Too often good ideas 

 are buried under a ponderous Greek or Latin terminology. — Henry C. Cowles. 



ARD 



Antitoxic value of] complete and of incomplete foods. — Le Rej 



undertaken to ascertain how Penicillium glaticum can grow in such concentrated 

 solutions of the salts of copper, and also how the resistance of the organism to 

 the toxic salt is modified by varying conditions of nutrition. The maximum 

 concentration of four salts of copper (sulfate, nitrate, chlorid, and acetate) which 

 will allow germination in the presence of complete and incomplete foods has 

 been determined. A complete food contains the eight essential elements accord- 

 ing to the empirical formula C6H„06 + NH4N03 + MgS04 + KH2P04 + H20- 

 An incomplete food is one whose corresponding empirical formula is deficient. 



ology of Penicillium 



paper 



'3 Raunkiaer, C., Types biologiques pour la geographie botanique. Bull. 

 Acad. Roy. Sci. Lett. Danemark 1905:347-437, 



14 Le Rexard, Ali'., Essai sur la valeur antitoxique de I'aliment complet et 

 incomplet. 8vo. pp. 1-211. Paris: J. Mersch. 1907. 



