1909] CURRENT LITERATURE 151 
including chiefly the subglacial fell-fields. (5) Halophytes; subdivided into 
lithophilous, psammophilous, and pelophilous halophytes, salt swamps an 
deserts, and littoral swamp forests (mangrove swamps). 
. Soil physically dry and dominant in determining the vegetation. (6) 
Lithophytes; subdivided into the true lithophytes (chiefly lichens) chasmophytes, 
and shingle and rubble plants. (7) Psammophytes or sand plants. (8) Cherso- 
phytes or waste plants (i.e., ruderals); subdivided into waste herbage and 
bushland on dry soil. 
D. Climate dry and dominant in determining the vegetation. (9) Eremo- 
phytes, or plants of steppes and deserts; subdivided into deserts, shrub steppes, 
and grass steppes (including prairies). (10) Psilophytes or savanna plants; 
subdivided into thorny savanna, true savanna, and savanna forest. (11) Sclero- 
phyllous plants; subdivided into garique, maqui, and sclerophyllous forest. 
E. Soil physically or physiologically dry. (12) Conifers. 
F. Soil and climate favorable to mesophilous formations. . (13) Mesophytes; 
subdivided into arctic and alpine mat grassland, meadow, pasture, mesop: ytic 
bushland, deciduous dicotylous forests, and evergreen dicotylous forests. 
The classification here outlined does not strike the reviewer as an improve- 
ment over the one abandoned. For the most part the new groups of land forma- 
tions are segregates from the old term xerophyte. It is true that the latter term 
had become unwieldy, but it is questionable whether the difficulties are solved. 
Among the advantages of the new scheme is the recognition of close relation- 
ship between heath and moor plants, which together form the category oxylo- 
phytes, and also the close ecological relationship between these plants and the 
plants of cold and salty soils, as emphasized by SCHIMPER. It is gainful, too, to 
put the edaphic xerophytes (lithophytes, psammophytes, chersophytes) into one 
category and climatic xerophytes (eremophytes, psilophytes, sclerophylls) into 
another. Among the disadvantages of the new arrangement are many instances 
Where unrelated things are placed together and related things are separated. 
The most conspicuous case of the former is seen in class 12, the conifers. While this 
_ Sroup is a floristic unit, and even an ecological unit from the anatomical stand- 
point, it is far from being a geographic unit of any sort. It would seem better 
to put many conifers with the lithophytes and psammophytes, while others are 
as between lithophytes and psammophytes, oxylophytes and pen - 
northern regions, etc. It also seems unfortunate 
ular, and it seems a pity to have to brush the dust once more from our Greek 
‘ lexicons. The antiquated spelling of ecology (oecology) is unfortunate, and is 
