26 
NEIL E. STEVENS 
the same elevation. Observations made at this point while not ab- 
solutely identical with conditions at either of the stations would un- 
doubtedly approximate the conditions at both. This was certainly 
true in the seasons under consideration for the Monthly Weather 
Reports of that section indicate that the weather conditions recorded 
at Mohonk Lake prevailed generally over the Eastern Plateau region. 
Table XI gives the monthly precipitation, monthly mean tem- 
perature, temperature efficiency, and temperature summation, for 
the growing seasons of 1912, 1914, and 1915, at Mohonk Lake, N. Y. 
Comparison of the data for the three seasons shows only slight dif- 
ferences in temperature. June and July were warmest in 1912, August 
and September warmest in 1914. These differences are, however, 
slight, and can hardly have been significant in preventing ascospore 
production in 1 914, since ascospores have been produced elsewhere at 
higher as well as lower temperatures. 
There is on the other hand a considerable difference in the pre- 
cipitation of the three years. 191 5, when ascospores were produced 
abundantly before August 15, had much heavier rainfall in July than 
either of the other years. In 1912 ascospores were produced in 
November; in 1914, on the other hand, no ascospores were produced. 
It is then probably significant that August, September, and October, 
1912, had a total precipitation of 3.88, 3.28, and 4.50 inches re- 
spectively, as against 2.54, 0.32, and 3.55 inches for the corresponding 
months in 1914, a difference of over 4 inches for the three months in 
favor of 1 912. This difference is best seen from the graphs, figure 3. 
Distribution of rainfall is probably more important to the fungus than 
its total amount since most of the moisture for the growth of the 
fruiting bodies of the fungus must come from the outside.^ The 
three months under consideration had 34 days with more than o.oi 
inch of rainfall in 1912 and only 10 in 1914. 
Even this difference, however, does not give an adequate idea of 
the difference in the two years, or of the extent and severity of the 
drought of September, 1914. In August, 1912, the 3.88 inches of rain 
came mostly after the middle of the month, the 14 rainy days in Sep- 
tember were well distributed and October had a rainfall nearly an 
• The number of days with rain is of great importance to all vegetation in such 
a region as that on Overlook Mountain where the run-off is very great and com- 
paratively little moisture is left in the soil. The writer has discussed the run-off 
of this region in another connection (12, p. 265). 
