Xerophily in the Coniferce and Microphylly. ioi 
made that the adaptation is imperfect. Schimper, for instance 
remarks (loc. cit. p. 564) “ The xerophilous structure of Conifers is 
an hereditary character that does not always appear to correspond 
with the present conditions of existence of the Coniferae. This 
statement, however, really concerns only certain places in the 
tropics, such as Java and Sumatra.” Similarly, Miss Stopes 
(loc. cit.) considers that “ frequently the marked protection of the 
Gymnosperms seems out of place and superfluous, as it appears in 
the lives of many species of Abies, the large American forest trees, 
and in the various species commonly found growing in a mixed 
deciduous forest.” Schimper, however, denied that the Conifers 
are xerophilous. He observes : “ It is by no means admissible to 
include them among xerophytes, as Warming has done. The term 
xerophyte may to a certain extent apply to several species of Pinus 
and juniper us of dry sandy and stony soils, whose xerophily is 
determined by edaphic influences : but it does not apply to most 
species of Abies and Picea, our silver fir and spruce, for instance, 
which require as much moisture as broad-leaved trees, and are 
tropophilous in the whole of their mode of life.” It may be 
observed that this is in part an argument from the conditions to 
the plants, and involves the assumption that the adaptation is 
perfect—an assumption contradicted by Schimper in the examples 
from Java and Sumatra (quoted above). Further, it would appear 
to be straining the term to call Conifers tropophytes, as Schimper 
does in respect of the young shoots, which “ have only weak 
pi'otective devices against transpiration.” 
On the other hand, Dr. Moss 1 goes to the other extreme, and 
speaks of “ the undoubted xerophily of the Coniferales,” which he 
regards as the character that has enabled these evergreen plants 
“ to hold their own in the deciduous forests of the north temperate 
zone, and as being necessary for the continuance of the Conifers 
in a region, which, for more than half the year, is ecologically 
xerophytic.” Similarly, Warming, 2 though contradicted by Schimper, 
maintained his former position, stating in a later publication that 
“ the soil upon which coniferous forest occurs varies widely, yet, 
so far as reliable information is available, it is always physically 
or physiologically dry—a fact which harmonises with the xerophytic 
structure of Coniferae. Miss Stopes is incorrect in assuming 
1 “Xerophily and the Deciduous Habit.” New Phyt., VI., 
p. 183, 1907. 
1 Oecology of Plants, p. 310, 1909. 
