232 
BOTANY: LIPMAN AND WAYNICK 
Poat-Glacial submergence of Long Island, Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 28, 1917, (279-309). 
Post-Glacial features of the upper Hudson Valley, N. Y. State Museum, Bull., 195, 1917. 
Post-Glacial uplift of northesastern America Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 29 (in press) , 1918. 
A BACTERIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE SOIL OF LOGGERHEAD 
KEY, TORTUGAS, FLORIDA 
By C. B. Lipman and D. D. Waynick 
College of Agriculture, University of California 
Communicated by A. G. Mayer, May 21, 1918 
Inasmuch as the coarse calcareous sands of the islands off the Florida Coast, 
and of similar ones, represent very recent geological material, and since they, 
therefore, offer an opportunity of determining the early bacterial flora which 
establish themselves there, it was decided to carry out some studies on typical 
samples. Dr. A. G. Mayer, Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory of 
the Carnegie Institution, situated on Loggerhead Key, Tortugas, Florida, 
supplied us with the necc ssary samples for our study. Three large samples 
were collected, which answer to the following descriptions, for which we are 
indebted to Dr. Mayer: 
No. 1. In region thickly covered with Suriana maritimi bushes. About twenty feet 
north of stone wall built in 1868 and in a place where probably no man has trodden for 30 
years or more. This sample is of an average depth of about 7 inches beneath the surface. 
No. 2. Sand from the surface to 6 inches in depth from the northern end of Loggerhead 
Key. The region is barren of vegetation, no plants having ever grown within 200 feet of 
the place from which sample was taken. It is about 6 feet above high tide level on the crest 
of the island. Probably no man has walked here for 10 months previously. 
No. 3. From an average depth of 15 inches below the surface in a place densely wooded 
with Suriana maritima. Same locality as Sample No. 1. 
We thus had a soil and a subsoil sample from a part of the island in which 
large bushes (Suriana maritima) have established themselves as a permanent 
association. We also had a surface sample of very coarse, white, calcareous 
sand or grits, on which plants have never grown. It is to be noted, also, 
that there has been little or no opportunity for the contamination of these 
samples by the habitation or tread of man. The flora which now characterize 
the soil or sand material must take their origin either from the sea water, 
which now surrounds and which at one time probably covered them, or from 
winds carrying dust from older soils. The samples were collected by Dr. 
Mayer with the greatest care, large sterile bottles with cotton stoppers having 
been employed as containers. The cotton stoppers were doubly protected 
against contamination while in transit. 
The studies carried out included counts of bacteria in the various samples, 
isolation and identification of pure cultures of the important bacteria and 
