726 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 958 



of dwarfs in proportions as higli as 1:9 and 

 1 : 5.7. These classes were sharply separated from 

 the mass of the cultures and there were no inter- 

 mediates between the two groups. The high pro- 

 portions suggest the 1 : 5 ratio which might be 

 expected if two factors for size were present, each 

 allelomorphic to its absence. Such a simple ex- 

 planation, however, calls for the appearance of 

 corresponding classes of giants to balance the 

 dwarfs and for several other classes of plants of 

 different sizes composing the mass of the cultures; 

 such classes were not found. The dwarfs then 

 present a puzzling phenomenon not readily under- 

 stood on current Mendelian views of the segrega- 

 tion of factors governing size. 



Admitting the complexity of the situation when 

 such an extreme cross is made as that between 

 CEnothera Mennis and (Enotliera grandiflora, there 

 still appears to the writer sufficient reason in the 

 data at hand to present the problems as material 

 for reflection on the Mendelian theory of the 

 stability of factors and the principles of their 

 distribution unchanged in the organization of 

 gametes. The question naturally arises whether 

 the phenomenon of the progressive advance ex- 

 hibited in the F„ generation of these hybrids as 

 well as the formation of groups of dwarfs may 

 not involve, as a result of the cross, the direct 

 modification of factors for size. 

 Climatic Areas of the United States as Belated to 

 Plant Groiuth (illustrated) : Burton E. Living- 

 ston, Ph.D. Introduced by Professor John W. 

 Harshberger. 



This paper deals with that phase of plant geog- 

 raphy which relates the distribution of the various 

 forms of vegetation to climatic factors, a phase 

 which is as important to scientific agriculture as 

 it is to what is commonly termed pure science. 



Following an introductory consideration of the 

 nature of the problem to be dealt with and some 

 remarks on the sort of means by which we may 

 hope to obtain quantitative information upon the 

 relation of plant growth to climatic conditions, 

 attention is given to the subdivision of the United 

 States into climatic areas more or less susceptible 

 of quantitative definition. Climatic conditions, as 

 far as they influence plants, must be considered 

 mainly as two comparatively distinct groups of 

 environmental factors. The first of these groups 

 constitutes the moisture conditions, tending to 

 furnish the plant with water or to withdraw mois- 

 ture from its tissues. The second group, the tem- 

 perature conditions, tend to increase or decrease 

 the temperature of the plant body. As a primary 



duration factor for the attempted integration or 

 averaging of these climatic conditions, the length 

 of the f restless season is introduced; for prac- 

 tically all animals and perhaps for most other 

 plant forms in the United States, the conditions 

 which are effective during the frostless season 

 have far more influence on plant distribution than 

 have those which are effective during the re- 

 mainder of the year. Other time periods require 

 attention, however. 



From a somewhat thorough study of the cli- 

 matic data which are at hand it appears that any 

 two systems of isoclimatic lines, one system repre- 

 senting the geographical distribution of tempera- 

 ture conditions and the other representing that of 

 moisture conditions, have a strong tendency to 

 cross each other, thus dividing the country into 

 many climatic areas, each one capable of quanti- 

 tative description. The remainder of the paper 

 concerns itself with a discussion of selected ex- 

 amples of these areas and of the natural vegeta- 

 tion which characterizes them. This line of study 

 is in its reconnaissance stage and the results are 

 quite tentative in their character. 

 The Day of the Last Judgment: Paul Haupt, 



Ph.D., LL.D. 



The conception of the day of the last judgment 

 is based on the idea of the day of the Lord in 

 the Old Testament prophecies. Originally the 

 judgment-day, resurrection and immortality re- 

 ferred to the Chosen People. The dry bones in 

 Ezekiel xxxvii represent the Jewish nation in the 

 Babylonian captivity. The so-called eschatolog- 

 ical passages as well as the alleged Messianic 

 prophecies have, as a rule, a definite historical 

 background, but when the bills drawn on the 

 future were not honored they were extended to 

 doomsday. 



The final chapter of the book of Joel does not 

 contain an eschatological prophecy referring to 

 the end of the world, but the confident prediction 

 of an enthusiastic patriot expressing the hopes of 

 the Maccabees for the near future. Nor does the 

 last chapter of the book of Zachariah refer to the 

 last judgment; originally it predicted merely a 

 decisive victory of the Maccabees over their ene- 

 mies about 140 B.C. and subsequent engineering 

 improvements in and near Jerusalem. 



The ideas of doomsday, resurrection and immor- 

 tality are secondary, but Ernest Eenan is right in 

 saying that there is no lever capable of raising an 

 entire people if once they have lost their faith in 

 the immortality of the soul, and Dr. A. E. Garvey 

 remarks : ' ' He who lives for the ideals of truth, 



