NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



301 



ocean currents. The genus does not occur in New Zealand, Africa, and 

 S. America. — G. F. S.-E. 



Electric Culture of Early Vegetables [Le Jard. xxii. 523, p. 365 ; 

 December 5, 1908). — At the recent exhibition at Marseilles experiments 

 were carried out with Asparagus and Strawberries on the system of 

 heating with electrical resistances. Instead of heating the hotbeds with 

 hot air or steam, conducting apparatus is plunged at a varying depth 

 beneath the frame, through which are passed currents varying from 1*5 to 

 5 amperes, the distribution of heat to the surface being more perfect and 

 regular. — F. A. W. 



Flora Of the Italian Lakes. By G. Geilinger ( Winterthur) (Beih. 

 Bot. Centralbi. vol. xxiv. Abth. 2, Heft 2, pp. 119-420 ; May 1909 ; 

 map). — This is a complete flora of the Griqua Mountains (near the Lake 

 of Como). The preliminary chapters are devoted to the geography, 

 geology, meteorology, and bibliography of the district. Then follows the 

 list of species, with habitats, altitudes, and other notes (mosses and ferns 

 included). After the flora follows a description in great detail of the 

 various vegetation types, such as the woodland floras. These types are 

 divided into "formation groups" as deciduous and coniferous woods. 

 Each group is then considered in detail (Oakwood, Chestnut, and Beech 

 formations). Every formation is then divided into special groups, such 

 as in the case of the Oakwood formation — (a) Highwood, (b) Bushwood, 

 and (c) Submediterranean Bushwood. Lists of dominant and other 

 species are given under each of these headings. This treatment involves 

 of course a very thorough description of the usual types of associations. 

 There are sixteen types of grass floras alone without including the mixed 

 and subtypes. 



The last chapter is headed " The Regions," an gives the altitudinal 

 limits of the Submontane, Montane, Subalpine, and Alpine regions, as 

 well as of the Mediterranean extensions which occur up to about 400 m. 

 There is a good bibliography and index both to plants and localities on 

 the map. 



The book is in fact both an ordinary flora and a full account of the 

 ecology of the district. — G. F. S.-E. 



Flora Of Phrygia. By Jos. Bornmiiller (Weimar) {Beih. Bot. 

 Centralbi vol. xxiv. Abth. 2, Heft 3, pp. 440-503 ; July 1909).— An 

 enumeration of the plants obtained during his third journey to Bithynia 

 and Phrygia. He collected about 1,400 numbers (including fungi, lichens, 

 and mosses). New species are described of Gypsophila, Alsine, Astragalus 

 (four new species), Onobrychis, Scabiosa, Carduus, Serratula, Convolvulus, 

 Alkanna, Bochelia, Verbascum, and Marrubium. — G. F. S.-E. 



Forcing: Hot-Water v. Etherization. By Professor Hans 

 Molisch, translated by E. Lemoine (Le Jard., vol. xxii. p. 365, No. 523 ; 

 December 5, 1908). — Eight years ago Professor Johannsen demonstrated 

 that lilacs and other plants in a resting state could be awakened to 

 growth at the beginning of the autumn, if subjected for twenty-four or 

 forty-eight hours to the action of ether, and then forced in the usual way. 



