April 25, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



619 



tions are for many species little more than 

 repetitions of what the scientist is familiar 

 with elsewhere. Such publications there- 

 fore, are not very satisfactory illustrations 

 of what a survey can do for the schools, 

 either to the advocates of a bill before a 

 legislature or to the school instructors 

 whose aid may be sought for the bill. And 

 if such productions seem unsuited to the 

 purpose to those who are working for the 

 bill, how shall these advocates employ these 

 reports to show what the proposed survey 

 may do? But can the argument for a 

 state natural history survey be strength- 

 ened by holding up for its aim a definite, 

 worthy and vote-compelling task, just as 

 definite as the proposal of the geologist to 

 explore an iron range? 



The plan for a natural history sun^ ' 

 which seems to me most likely to brijg 

 legislative consideration in the largest 

 number of states, a survey which, if once 

 started, will carry with it all that is de- 

 sired for education, economics and science, 

 is that of a regional survey, biogeographic 

 in its nature, the reports of which should 

 be so written as to be intelligible and use- 

 ful to scientists, citizens and school chil- 

 dren alike. 



The method of regional surveys within 

 a state is not new. New York uses it for 

 the geological survey, making the unit-re- 

 gions the quadrangles of the U. S. Topo- 

 graphic survey ; and Maryland uses it, ma- 

 king the county the unit-region. The bio- 

 geographic method is now made to include 

 not only flora and fauna with their distri- 

 bution but also climate, topography, soil 

 and general relation to environment. This 

 biogeographic method of survey was used 

 among the first by Professor Plahault, of 

 Montpellier University, in France, and was 

 later applied by R. Smith to survey the re- 

 gion about Edinburgh, and still later by 

 Messrs. G. Smith, Moss and Rankin for 



Yorkshire, England. In our own country 

 similar attempts have been made by the 

 Botanical Seminar in Nebraska, by Hitch- 

 cock in Kansas, by Livingston in two coun- 

 ties in Michigan, and by the Geological 

 and Biological Survey of Michigan in the 

 bulletin of 1911, entitled "A Biological 

 Survey of the Sand Dune Region of the 

 South Shore of Saginaw Bay, Michigan." 

 This list names but a few of the attempts 

 at biogeographic survey work, some of 

 which have been noted successes, while 

 others have had inadequate publication fa- 

 cilities. The method has been tried and 

 found feasible. It was used by Schimper 

 in his "Pflanzengeographie," in Spal- 

 ding's "Distribution and Movements of 

 Desert Plants," and is now in use in the 

 making of that excellent series under the 

 ed^.orship of Engler and Dmde, "Die 

 Vegetation der Erde." 



A regional, biogeographic survey re- 

 quires maps on which to spread data of 

 distribution and habitat. Fortunately for 

 the purpose, good base maps are already 

 provided in the topographic surrey of the 

 government. Every state in the union has 

 had a considerable portion of its area thus 

 mapped in quadrangles of 20 to 50 or more 

 miles square, and these maps are covered 

 with contour lines giving just what is 

 needed for the spreading of biogeographic 

 data. 



Conceive that a survey party goes into 

 one of these quadrangles provided with a 

 topographic map, that the work of the sur- 

 vey eventuates in a report on the phytogeog- 

 raphy and the zoogeography of the region, 

 that distribution data are spread on the 

 topographic maps, that climate, soil and 

 other physical features are given, and 

 finally that all parts are so presented that 

 the reading of the report and the study of 

 the region will put the intelligent reader 

 into possession of what that quadrangle 



