PROCEEDINGS OF Till-: CLUB 

 Wednesday, April 26, 1905 



Tliis meeting was licld at the museum oi' tlie New York 

 Botanical Garden, with seventeen persons present and President 

 Rusby in the chair. 



A letter from the Brookl)'n Institute of Ails and Sciences pro- 

 posing cooperation in the field excursions of the Club was read 

 and referred to the chairman of the field committee with power 

 to act. 



The announced paper by Dr. P. A. Rydberg on "The Com- 

 position of the Rocky Mountain Flora" was omitted b}- reason 

 of the absence of the author. 



" Notes on the Wire-Grass Country of Georgia " was the title 

 of the paper presented by Mr. R. M. Harper. 



The wire-grass country takes its name from the wire-grass, 

 Aristida stricta, which is common all over it. In a broad sense, 

 the wire-grass country coincides with the pine-barrens, which 

 constitute about two thirds of the coastal plain of Georgia, but for 

 the present purposes the term is restricted to the Altamaha Grit 

 region, an area of about 11,000 square miles. 



The climate of the region, as compared with New York Cit\-, 

 is about 18° warmer in winter and 9° warmer in summer. The 

 rainfall averages about 50 inches a year, and most of it falls in 

 the growing season. The geographical conditions are remarka- 

 bly uniform throughout, and on account of this uniformit)- the 

 flora is not very rich, only about one half as many species being 

 known there as in the state of New Jersey, though the area is 

 larger. 



The region is naturall\' forested throughout, but the forests 

 are mainly of long-leaf pine, which gives little shade. Conse- 

 quently, the most striking feature of the vegetation as a whole is 

 the adaptation to sunlight, usually manifested by reduction of 

 leaf-surface. 



The plants of the wire-grass country can be classified accord- 

 ing to habitat jnto i 5 or 20 groups. The principal habitats are 



