396 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
BEcK has given us his views respecting the delimitation of plant forma- 
tions. He discusses the varied use of the term formation, the relations 
between floristic and biological conceptions, and other disputed questions. 
Beck believes that true formations are rather sharply marked, and that many 
“‘transitions” are developmental stages or are due to man’s influence.—H. C. 
COWLES. 
C. C. ADAMS” has discussed in an interesting manner the postglacial 
origin and migration of the life of the northeastern United States. It is shown, 
especially from his studies of shells, that the southeastern United States is the 
greatest of the life centers; the southwest has been a secondary center. The 
Mississippi valley and the coastal plain have been prominent paths of 
migration.—H. C. COWLES 
R. E. B. MCKENNEY® has published some notes on plant distribution in 
Orange county, southern California. He describes seven formations; the 
mountains with hard-leaved evergreen shrubs; the foothills, also dominated 
by a scrubby growth; the cafions, which alone have trees, the river beds, 
mesas, bogs, and strand. He regards this flora as not properly sclerophyll, 
but intermediate between this type and the desert.— H. C. Cov 
M6LLER,™ a pupil of Nathorst, has published a flora of the Upper 
Jurrassic of Bornholm, Contrasted with more southerly localities in Europe, 
it is distinguished by the presence of a member of the Marattiaceae which at 
that time are no longer represented to the southward. Several members of 
the Dipteridinae are also recorded. The Matonieae are represented by 
specimens scarcely distinguishable from the existing Matonia pectinata. 
Numerous Cycadean leaves are present as are also members of the Gink- 
oales.—E. W. BERRY. 
W. BLANKINSHIP®S gives a list of the plant formations of eastern 
Massachusetts with their character plants. His classification is as follows: 
Xerophytes (sand barrens, hilltop barrens), Mesophytes (sand plain forests, 
hilly upland forests), Hygrophytes (sand pond margins, low meadows, sea- 
shores, low woodlands), Helophytes (swamps, bogs, salt marshes, boggy 
woodlands), Hydrophytes (sand ponds, mud ponds, sea shoals, fresh-water 
formations, pelagic ee Biophytes (waste vate fi economic formations, 
fungoid formations).—H. 
™ BECK, VON bia ety G. Rirrer, Ueber die Umgrenzung der Pflanzen- 
formationen. Oesterr. Bot. Zeit. 52: 421-427. 1902. 
12 Jour. haus a Sour — 1902. 
13 MCKEN . B., Notes on peeiah distribution in southern California. 
Uo5.A: nant a Piste 10: 166-178. 
™ MOLLER, ee, Mie: till Bernholms fossile Flora, Kongl. Fysiog. Sallsk. 
Handl. Lund x - 1902 
#BuaNKinsnn J. W., The plant formations of eastern Massachusetts. Rhodora 
5+ 124-137. 1903. 
