388 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1347 



and zoologists of the pure biological sciences, 

 foresters and economic entomologists of the 

 applied sciences, and climatologists and geog- 

 raphers, whose work is closely connected with 

 ecology. Beginning with the study of statics, 

 the description of conditions as they exist, 

 the science progressed rapidly into dynamics, 

 the investigation of the behavior of plants 

 and animals and the development of the com- 

 munities in which they live. Now, by refined 

 observation and precise experiment, ecology 

 seeks to discover the fundamental causes 

 which control the natural existence of living 

 things. As ecology has broadened in its scope, 

 so also has it deepened; as it has included 

 questions of greater and more fimdamental 

 biological importance, so has it attracted in- 

 vestigators in larger numbers and of greater 

 ability; as the products of ecological research 

 have become more numerous and more 

 scholarly, so has the necessity grown for ade- 

 quate means of publication. 



Ecology, the official publication of the Eco- 

 logical Society of America, is the latest ad- 

 dition to American biological periodicals. 

 Yet it does not add to the number of scien- 

 tific journals, for it is a continuation of the 

 old and useful Plant World, which for several 

 years has been largely ecological. At the St. 

 Louis meeting of the affiliated scientific 

 societies the Plant World Association most 

 generously turned over its magazine, free 

 from all liabilities, to the Ecological Society. 

 But the new title, the new cover, the new 

 volume number, the new editorial board, and 

 above all the opening of its pages to articles 

 on all branches of ecology, stamp it as a dis- 

 tinctly new periodical. Ecology begins its 

 career under favorable circumstances. As the 

 official organ of a growing society it is not 

 wholly dependent on a subscription list for 

 its financial stability. It is printed by the 

 New Era Printing Company and managed 

 through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the 

 editorial control remaining with the society, 

 imdoubtedly fortunate arrangements. Its edi- 

 torial board, headed by Major Barrington 

 Moore, comprises fifteen men chosen from the 

 leading ecologists of the country and repre- 



senting a wide diversity of interests and 

 activities. 



The first two numbers set a high standard 

 and illustrate the broad scope of the science. 

 The editor-in-chief contributes a short article 

 on the scope of ecology; Ellsworth Hunting- 

 ton correlates atmospheric conditions with the 

 prevalence of influenza and pneimaonia; A. E. 

 Douglass describes a new method of corre- 

 lating tree-growth with precipitation; C. E. 

 Esterly describes experiments on the behavior 

 of a copepod in relation to its diurnal migra- 

 tion ; W. E. Praeger contributes a note on the 

 ecology of herons; E. T. Wherry, using his 

 new method of determining soil acidity, dis- 

 cusses the distribution of plants around salt 

 marshes; and J. V. Hoffmann describes the 

 establishment of a Douglas fir forest. In the 

 second number E. B. Powers publishes the 

 results of his experiments on the influence of 

 temperature and concentration on the toxicity 

 of salts to fishes; W. H. Burkholder discusses 

 the effect of soil temperatures on healthy and 

 diseased bean plants; C. C. Forsaith describes 

 the anatomical reduction in alpine plants 

 from the higher White Mountains ; and there is 

 presented the first part of an extensive report 

 on the ecology of the plants and animals of 

 Mount Marcy, New York, by Messrs. Adams, 

 Burns, Hankinson, Moore and Taylor, com- 

 prising the committee on cooperation of the 

 Ecological Society. From the foregoing it is 

 evident that the first numbers contain material 

 of interest to climatologists, marine biologists, 

 zoologists, botanists, agronomists and foresters 

 as well as to geographers, and even to the med- 

 ical profession. 



Ecology is an illustrated quarterly, octavo; 

 a volume of four numbers will contain 300 or 

 more pages. 



H. A. Gleason 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



CHROMOSOMAL DUPLICATION AND MENDEL- 

 IAN PHENOMENA IN DATURA MUTANTS 



There are 12 separate and distinct mutants 

 of the Jimson weed (Datura Stramonium) 

 which have recurred with more or less fre- 



