1901] CURRENT LITERATURE 375 
fluorescent bacteria could be made indicative of that fact and yet avoid the 
trinomial term. What faults may be found in the book, however, are of minor 
importance in comparison with its value asa reference book, and a supple- 
ment to the text-book of every student in a bacteriological laboratory. — 
MARY HEFFERAN, 
The flora of Alabama.‘ 
Dr. CHARLES Mone has left behind him a most substantial monument, 
The bulky volume before us contains the botanical recerds of ‘forty years 
of sojourn and wanderings” through the state of Alabama. It may be added 
that the “wanderings” were by no means aimless, but were those of a keen 
and tireless observer, Such a mass of observations by a single man is the 
possession of no other state. It isa pleasure to note that the author was per- 
mitted to complete the organization of his notes of a lifetime into permanent 
and usable form, 
The book presents the patient study of a great and interesting area, not 
by the perfunctory cataloguing of species collected, but by the discussion of 
the broad biological features which have determined the flora and its distri- 
bution. The author evidently fully appreciated the newer aspects of the 
problems of floras, and has presented to us, in terms of Merriam’s life zones 
and Warming’s plant associations, the general ecologic and floristic features 
of Alabama. 
The general discussion occupies 137 pages, and is full of material for the 
student of phytogeography. After some preliminary historical material, in 
which the work of such pioneers as Bartram, Buckley, Gates, Peters, Beau- 
mont, and Nevius, are fully noted, the general physiographic features of the 
State are presented under topography and geology, river systems, and li- 
mate. Then follows an account of the general principles of plant distribu- 
tion, the significance of life zones and of plant associations and formations 
being explained. These principles are then applied to the flora of Alabama, 
which is presented in its general character and distribution. vl 
The ecologic relations are considered under the following titles : forest 
flora, open land or campestrian flora, water and swamp flora, organotopic 
flora (epiphytic, saprophytic, parasitic, and insectivorous plants), and intro- 
duced plants and their influence upon native plant associations. The distri- 
bution falls naturally under the two general heads of the Carolinian and 
Louisianian areas ; the former including the mountain region, the table-lands 
of the Warrior and Coosa basins, the region of the Tennessee river valley, 
and the region of the lower hill country; the latter including the region of 
*Mour, CHARLES: Plant life of Alabama. An account of the distribution, 
modes of association, and adaptations of the flora of Alabama, together with a sys- 
tematic catalogue of the plants growing in the state. Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. 
G: I-921. gis, I-13. 31 Jy. 1901. 
