498 BOTANICAL GAZETTE |JUNE 
European schools. Continental ecology, developing naturally and by degrees 
from the older study of floristic plant geography, has retained much of the 
taxonomic standpoint, and methods for distinguishing, classifying, and arrang- 
ing vegetational units according to their physiognomy have been very highly 
developed. In America, on the other hand, and latterly also in the British 
commonwealths, the tendency has been much more to emphasize the dynamic 
and genetic aspects, especially under the leadership of Cow es, in the develop- 
ment of the successional idea. The quadrat method of Pounp and CLEMENTS, 
to be sure, was a notable contribution to physiognomic ecology, but CLEMENTS 
became an early convert to the successional doctrine, and has been one of its 
most voluminous exponents. Thus the Anglo-Americans and the rest of the 
world have come to present united and opposing fronts, and the situation has 
become sufficiently tense to induce the remark from RoMELL,‘ “Entre divers 
lutte s’enflamme.” The first part of his statement is true enough, and the 
latter part could easily have become so, if the one side had been as willing to 
accept battle as the other was to offer it. It goes without saying that such 
a situation is a most regrettable one for the science of ecology. It is encourag- 
ing therefore to note, in a group of recent Continental papers in ecology,’ 
a markedly increased toleration of the successional-dynamic point of view, 
as well as indications that physiognomic methods may yet be developed that 
will not seem too a in conception and too unwieldy in practice 
for the American temperam 
RUBEL’s three papers are oe valuable as a comprehensive and 
highly condensed summary of the progress of ecology. He traces the early 
growth of the science, from the vague first beginnings with THEOPHRASTUS 
and the more or less disconnected comment of early modern taxonomic 
botanists, through its evolution as a subspecies of phytogeography, to its present 
independent development. The history of the numerous efforts to arrive 
4RoMELL, Lars-GuNNaR, che a et écologie raisonnée. Svensk 
Botanisk Tidskrift 14:136~-146. 1 
5 RUBEL, Epvarp, Anfinge se der Geobotanik. Vierteljahrsschr. Naturf. 
Gesells. Ziirich 62:629-650. 1917. 
r die Entwicklung der Gesellschaftsmorphologie. Jour. Ecol. 
? 
8:18-40. 1920. 
Die Entwicklung der Pflanzensoziologie. Vierteljahrsschr. Naturf. 
Gesells. Ziirich 65: ae 1920. 
Braun-BianQuET, J., Prinzipien einer Systematik der Pflanzengesellschaften 
auf Regertesie 2 Gata Jahrb. St. Gallischen Naturw. Gesells. 57:305-35!- 
Fee ie Aufgaben und. se einer vergleichenden Physiologie auf geogra- 
phischer Grundlage. pp. 42. Jena. 19 
PALMGREN, ALVAR, Die parang als pflanzengeographischer Faktor. Acta 
Soc. Fauna et Flora Fennica. 49:no. 1. 1921. 
