Book Reviews: A New Edition of a Familiar Text
Book Reviews: A New Edition of a Familiar Text
Book Reviews: A New Taxonomy Textbook
Book Reviews: Algae of the Western Great Lakes Area
Notes and News: Warren R. Witz, Maryland, and West Virginia
The advance-guard of spring reaches West Virginia early in February, and we celebrate its arrival with a feast of Water Cresses, which are as grateful to snow-wearied eyes as to the palate. In late March a tour around the garden shows many signs of promise. The birds know very well that spring is coming, for in February the cardinal grosbeak whistles boldly on every frost-free morning, and the blue bird takes you into his confidence in his quiet fashion to say that the season of flowers is really at hand. The shrubberies on this 19th day of February are full of swelling buds, and even some insect life is discoverable here and there, and spider threads are seen thrown from one limb to another. Very striking is a low clump of Honey Locusts, the deep red spines of which make an effective contrast to the striped bark of the branches, a light gray on olive green and very smooth and satiny in texture. These curious waves and markings are confined to the young growth, and are conspicuous now. Later on, in the exquisite delicacy of its foliage, the red leaflets matching the thorns in color, it will rival any of the greenhouse Acacias. The Hypericums are already leafing out, and H. aureum is fairly covered with its stifflinear leaflets, dark green with red and orange tints on the latest comers.
Just before the turn of the century, the name of Danske Dandridge was making West Virginia known botanically upon both sides of the Atlantic. Like many another, however, she was “not without honor save in her own country and among her own people.” It is in belated recognition of her work that the present sketch was prepared by one of “her own people.”
The distribution of the species of Botrychium in West Virginia has been studied carefully by numerous investigators, but some published records need correction, and it was felt desirable to review the known distribution in the State at this time, in connection with the forthcoming publication of the Vascular Flora of West Virginia, by P. D. Strausbaugh and Earl L. Core.
The preparation of good herbarium plant material involves much care and labor, and even artistic sense. There is a best way from the time the branch or plant is selected and gathered, through its arrangement of stems, leaves, flowers, and perhaps fruit, prior to pressing and subsequent drying in the plant press. Some collectors make excellent specimens, and take a real pride in good work; others are hurried and careless in all their work from beginning to end. Since a specimen is intended to serve as a permanent and authentic record of actual material, to be used for reference and comparison in future studies for many years, the longer it retains its original likeness as an undamaged dried specimen in spite of subsequent handling and study, the more satisfactory it has proven to be.
KOSTELETZKYA VIRGINICA var. AQUILONIA forma alba Reed, form. nov. Flores albae. Swamps and tidal marshes along Choptank River, Cambridge, Dorchester County, Maryland. August 26, 1941. Clyde F. Reed 3841. Type deposited in the United States National Herbarium. Co-types in Gray Herbarium and Reed Herbarium.
In 1936, A. B. Brooks reported the discovery of Ilex longipes Walt. in West Virginia. Several years later, Maurice Brooks (1940) reported the discovery of a yellow fruited form of this species and subsequently named it forma Van Trompii. In 1941, E. J. Alexander, who had been studying plants of the same species but from a different locality for a number of years, named the species I. collina. Following this, in 1940, Core and Davis transferred the yellow fruited form to this species. In the eighth edition of Gray’s Manual of Botany (1950), Fernald regarded the long pedicelled holly of Virginia and West Virginia as being identical with I. iongipes. There are several reasons why the latter is not a satisfactory treatment, and the writer suggests that Alexander’s name be used.