December 13, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



939 



ous inquiries concerning the Philippine forests. 

 In its preparation he has made use of the works 

 of Blanco, Vidal, Delgado and Garcia. The 

 translations are rather awkward, indicating a 

 lack of botanical knowledge on the part of the 

 translator. The plates are mainly from Blanco's 

 ' Flora de Filipinas ' and Vidal's ' Sinopsis de 

 Familias y Generos de Plantas lenosas de Fil- 

 ipinas.' 



More than six hundred species of trees are now 

 enumerated for the archipelago, and it is esti- 

 mated that there are from twenty to forty mil- 

 lions of acres of forests still standing, in which 

 there are in many places trees one hundred and 

 fifty feet in height. Gum, rubber, gutta percha 

 and dye-producing trees occur in abundance, as 

 also those producing timber, firewood, textiles, 

 oils, tan-bark, medicines and edible fruits. 



In many cases these forests are at present in- 

 accessible on account of the lack of waterways 

 and good roads. The methods of the natives 

 are crude, slow and expensive. When good 

 roads are made and better methods are intro- 

 duced the islands will be able to supply a large 

 amount of timber for construction, for which 

 there is a great demand throughout the Orient. 



RECENT ECOLOGICAL PAPERS. 



Three recent papers are noted here, the first 

 of which is by Professor Doctor Bray of the 

 University of Texas, on the ' Ecological Eela- 

 tions of the Vegetation of Western Texas,' pub- 

 lished in the August, September and October 

 numbers of the Botanical Gazette, in which the 

 author points out the fact that the region is the 

 meeting ground of no less than eight floral ele- 

 ments, and that the flora is one of xerophytic 

 aspect. Excellent half-tone illustrations add 

 much to the clearness of the text. The second 

 paper is by A. J. Pieters, assistant botanist in 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 on 'The Plants of Western Lake Erie,' in the 

 Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. 

 Here it is shown that the vegetation may be 

 grouped as follows : (1) Free-swimming, micro- 

 scopic forms in the open lake — i. e., the plank- 

 ton ; (2) other unattached species, mainly mac- 

 roscopic, as Lemna utricularia, etc. ; (3) attached 

 submersed plants, as Naias, Chara, Cladophora, 

 etc. ; (4) attached plants with floating leayes, as 



Nymphseacese and Potamogeton ; (5) swamp plants. 

 Here again excellent half-tone illustrations 

 are used with good effect. The third paper is 

 by Thomas H. Kearney, of the Division of Bot- 

 any of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, on a botanical survey of that very inter- 

 esting region, the Dismal Swamp of southeastern 

 Virginia. After a discussion of such factors as 

 climate, physiography, geology and soils, the 

 plant covering is described at length, and the 

 conclusion is reached that of the indigenous 

 species (about 620) ' over five hundred are en- 

 demic in extra-tropical North America, the 

 great majority in the country east of the Rocky 

 Mountains.' 



government grass studies. 

 The Division of Agrostology was established 

 in the United States Department of Agriculture 

 in 1895 for the purpose of investigating the 

 various problems relating to the grasses and 

 forage plants of the country. After six years 

 of existence a bulletin has been issued present- 

 ing a summary of the work accomplished, 

 under the title of ' Field Work of the Division 

 of Agrostology,' and prepared by Cornelius L. 

 Shear. Maps show at a glance the territory 

 covered by the various field workers, and no 

 botanist can examine these without gratifica- 

 tion that so much has been done in half a 

 dozen years. The greatest amount of work 

 has been done in the Gulf States from Florida 

 to Texas, thence northward over the Great 

 Plains and the eastern Rocky Mountain region 

 to the international boundary. Twenty-seven 

 different botanists have been engaged in these 

 field studies. 



In the Atlantic coast states the investi- 

 gations included, in addition to the usual one 

 of forage, the study of grasses as sand-binders, 

 and much attention was given to this part 

 of the subject. In the States of the Gulf 

 coast the forage problems are more difli- 

 cult of solution, the soil having been ex- 

 hausted in many places, and the people hav- 

 ing the impression that grasses for forage pur- 

 poses cannot be grown here as well as in the 

 North. The fact that between 300 and 400 

 species grow naturally in this region disproves 

 the latter, and the results of experiments show 



