Notes and News: University of Georgia
Notes and News: University of Georgia
Notes and News: University of Georgia
In 1944 a project was started by the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station to develop and market crops which could be grown on poor agricultural land, particularly on steep slopes. A minimum of cultivation of such crops in order to prevent soil erosion as well as a short rotation to insure a reasonably quick income were needed. The development of these crops was termed “Hillculture”, which implies a type of land use bridging agriculture and forestry.’ American holly (Ilex opaca Ait.) for a Christmas green was the first crop on which the hillculture personnel worked, and marketing this holly was the first step. Investigations showed that only a superior type of holly should be marketed to satisfy the trade. Holly with leaves having poor color, spots caused bv fungi or insects, or abnormal form was not always marketable. These findings therefore led to the decision to start investigations for determining
It is not unusual to find oak trees with unmistakably hybrid features in the two distinct groups of eastern oaks, the white oak group and the red oak group. That hybrids occur between the members within these two groups is obvious to a student familiar with oaks in the field. These hybrid oaks are distinguished by a multiplicity of’ intermediate characteristics in many instances, which may appear in the leaves, the autumnal coloration or the acorns. Spontaneous hybrids appearing in nature leave no historic records at to how, when or where they occurred. One can only surmise as to the origin of the tree in question. Whether it is a first generation derivative, an individual of a later generation, or some back-cross is quite unknown. There has been comparatively little study of our hybrid oaks and their progenies, and even less study of progenies derived from controlled crosses involving pure
During the spring and summer of 1948 I had opportunity to make rather extensive plant collections in Georgia. The work was supported in part directly by the University of Georgia, and in part by a grant-in-aid from the Carnegie Research Committee of the University Center in Georgia. Since I am transferring my major botanical activities to the Pacific Northwest, it seems advisable to place on record at this time certain notes accruing chiefly from my field and herbarium work of 1948. Through the kindness of Dr. George H. Boyd, director of research at the University of Georgia, I have been able to visit the United States National Herbarium, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the New York Botanical Garden, a.nd the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University as an aid in the preparation of this paper. The new entities proposed are presented first, followed by a discussion of some unusual