78 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY 
south. In the list there are included descriptions of 76 new species and varie- 
ties.— Cc 
Flora of Shikotan.—TaKkEpA* has studied somewhat intensively the 
flora of Shikotan, which is a small island situated near enough to the Kurile 
Islands to be regarded as one of them, at least in climatic conditions. The 
great interest of the islands in general is that. the vegetation is quite primeval, 
nothing having been disturbed by the hand = man; in fact, Shikotan seems not 
to have been touched by human hands at all. An analysis of the floristic 
features is presented, and the enumeration includes 234 species, the largest 
assemblage being mie ia (219). ‘The four largest families appear in the 
following order of abundan ULE os Gramineae, Rosaceae, and Umbelli- 
ferae. The largest genus is oe with 15 species; and 28 families are repre- 
sented by a single genus, 23 of these genera: being represented by a single 
species. The list inllles the description of 5 new species.—J. M. C. 
Phytogeographic notes from Palestine.—AARONSOHN® has called attention 
to some species that are disappearing from the flora of Palestine. He describes 
a little known station of Acacia albida, a species of northern Africa heretofore 
regarded as merely cultivated in Palestine. AARONSOHN regards it as an 
indigenous relict. Among other rare relicts in Palestine are Pinus halepensis, 
Juniperus phoenicea, and Fraxinus oxycarpa oligophylia. The author believes 
that these species, on account of the great need for wood in the arid Palestine 
climate, have been essentially exterminated by man. An interesting argument 
in support of this view, recalling the methods employed by the English ecolo- 
gists in working out the original distribution of the beech, is based on the occur- 
rence of place-names derived from these trees in neighborhoods where these 
species are no longer to be found.—H. C. Cowes 
U.S. Forest Service.—Among various articles of more or less general inter- 
est in a recent periodical, JAENICKE® gives a brief and interesting résumé 
of the varied activities of the Forest Service. This organization, employing 
the services of 2,895 persons, many of them with botanical training, and expend- 
ing annually some $6,000,000, devotes its attention to subjects ranging from 
purely botanical research through reforestation and forest protection to the 
sale of timber and the development of water power. With increasing interest 
in forest protection, there is coming an increasing demand for increasing 
# TaxepDA, H., The flora of the island of Shikotan. Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 42: 
433-510. 1914. 
# AARONSOHN, A., Notules de phytogéographie palestinienne. (I). Une station 
peu connue ao pasess albida Del. (ID). Espéces en voie d’extinction. Bull. Soc. 
Bot. France 60:495—503, 585-502. pl. I. 1013. 
5% JAENICKE, A. J., Progress of the U.S. Forest Service as reflected in the forester’s 
reports of 1911, 1912, 1913. Forestry Quarterly 12:397-407. 1914 
