658 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 202. 



or zoologist could visit the gardens every 

 year and spend from six to eight months 

 in study there. Slides were exhibited 

 showing the remarkable extent of the gar- 

 dens, their adaptabilitj' to the cultivation 

 of any tropical plant, their especially rich 

 collection of palms, Pandanusand ficus trees, 

 their manj' new and well equipped labora- 

 tories, the herbarium and library. Photo- 

 graphs of the native gardeners and collec- 

 tors, which form such an important part of 

 the gardens, were also exhibited. The at- 

 tempt was made to give an idea of the wealth 

 of biological, both botanical and zoological, 

 material which was to be found there, and 

 stress was laid upon the importance of 

 laboratory facilities in the tropics. The 

 beauties and charms of Dr. Treub's moun- 

 tain garden at Tjibodas were illustrated, 

 and botanists and zoologists were exhorted 

 to make the effort to see this unparalleled 

 hermitage of tropical biology. The re- 

 markable growth of the gardens in recent 

 years, and the attention and stipendia 

 which Dr. Treuh has attracted to it, made 

 it seem probable in the speaker's mind that 

 Buitenzorg will be soon the International 

 Biological Institute of the Tropics, as Na- 

 ples is the International Marine Biological 

 Institute. 



Notes on the Strand Flora of Florida. Her- 

 bert J. Webber. 



This was a popular lecture illustrated 

 by fifty lantern slides. The east coast of 

 Florida as far south as Biscayne Key 

 (latitude about 26° 75') is lined with low 

 sand dunes ranging from ten to thirty 

 feet in height. The coast line is being 

 gradually extended by the deposition 

 of sand, which is probably carried south- 

 ward from the Cape Hatteras region. In 

 almost every peninsula and island along the 

 coast of this portion of the State numerous 

 ridges or series of ridges several hundred 

 feet apart, evidently lines of old dunes, run 



parallel with the coast and mark various 

 stages in its recession. The deposition of 

 sand carried by the waves forms shoals or 

 banks 200 to 400 feet from the shore. This 

 gradual piling-up under the action of cur- 

 rents and waves evidently goes on until 

 the bank becomes sufficiently high to pro- 

 trude from the water at low tide, and then 

 the wind and waves throw it up still 

 higher. Where these banks remain above 

 water for several months certain dune- 

 building plants, such as Sesuvium portula- 

 castrum, Iva imbrieata, Cakile maritima, Pani- 

 cum amarum, etc., spring up, and as they 

 grow the wind banks the sand around them, 

 thus forming a low lines of dunes, to which 

 the sand washed up by the waves is being 

 continually added. 



The formation of new lines of dunes in 

 front of the old ones, now lining the shore, 

 plainly show.s the gradual recession of the 

 coast line. The dunes now lining the coast 

 at Daytona consist of two parallel ridges 

 of equal height, close together (50 to 100 

 feet apart), and in some places of a third 

 line in various stages of formation. After 

 the dunes reach the usual height vegetation 

 covers their surface, and thereafter the wind 

 has little effect on them, except gradually to 

 increase their width and height. 



Uniola paniculata is the main sand-bind- 

 ing grass to be found on the top and sea- 

 ward side of the first line of dunes. Here 

 it forms almost 75 per cent, of the vegeta- 

 tion, and -this zone maj^, therefore, be pro- 

 perly termed tbe KiioZa formation. Species 

 of Spartina, Panicum, Ipomcea, Yucca, Serenoa, 

 Croton, Euphorbia, Opuntia, etc., are also 

 commonly found mingled with Uniola, but 

 only to a small extent. At the base of the 

 main line of dunes a number of plants 

 grow naturally and serve as dune builders. 

 The principal ones of these are Paneium 

 amarum, Ipomaa pes-caprce. Batatas littoralis, 

 Iva imbrieata, Cakile maritima, etc. These 

 are also found to a greater or less extent on 



