19"] CURRENT LITERATURE 167 



is concerned with the relief of a region rather than with its geologic history. 

 At the same time, the historical treatment is entirely adequate to satisfy .the 

 needs of an ecologist, and abundant references to the literature are given for 

 the benefit of any who wish more detailed information. To illustrate the 

 mode of treatment, the section devoted to the Adirondack Mountains may 

 be cited. The subdivisions are as follows: geologic structure, topography 

 and drainage, glacial effects, climate and forests. 



The notes upon the forests w r hich are appended to most of the sections 

 are the least satisfactory portions of the work, being so brief and general as 

 to be almost useless, and in one case at least inaccurate. The conifer forest 

 of the southern Appalachian summits is referred to in three places. On p. 122 

 it is correctly described as "spruce and balsam." On p. 125 we read of the 

 "spruce and hemlock forests on the summits of the Pisgah and other ranges 

 in western North Carolina, where boreal conditions exist." The hemlock 



7 



in these mountains is found principally in deep ravines in the lower hardwood 

 forest belt, and rarely attains to the lower margin of the spruce-balsam forest. 

 On p. 614 occurs the statement that "on the higher summits of the Great 

 Smoky, Pisgah, and Balsam Mountains are a few thousand acres of black 

 spruce," with no mention of the balsam, which is the more important of the 

 two. On the same page, the author places the hemlock where it rightly 

 belongs, in "shaded ravines and on the better watered northern or north- 

 western slopes between 3000 and 5000 feet." 



The book is adequately illustrated and has valuable physiographic and 

 geologic maps. Its great weight is to be regretted, in a volume which one 

 would wish to carry upon his travels. — William S. Cooper. 



A Yosemite flora 



Mrs 



in the production of a local flora or handbook of one of our great natural 

 playgrounds. Scores and scores of other local floras have been produced, 

 but these have been as a rule mere check lists, and in all cases were intended 

 to meet a local need. In this Flora of the Yosemite 2 we have a handbook that 

 will find its largest use among strangers to the region. It is hardly necessary 

 to call attention to the small size of this National Park as compared with the 

 size of the great state of California, nor to the great size of the Park botanically 

 considered. Within its 102*1 sauare miles there are probably more kinds of 



d climate t 

 topography 



This 



flora. The grasses, sedges, and rushes are not included, but the authors 

 conservatively estimate that these would swell the number to 1200, a number 

 probably as great as that of an entire state in the prairie region. 



2 Hall, Harvey Monroe and Carlotta Case, A Yosemite flora. San Fran- 

 cisco: Paul Elder & Co. $2 . 16. 



