Volume 19 – Issue 1 (March 1954)

Book Review: Fundamentals of Ecology

Notes and News: North Carolina, Tunica Hills, William Herbert Medal, Maryland, and Mid-Appalachian Foray

In the course of field observation and collecting of plants in various parts of the eastern United States, certain notes have accumulated which seem worth placing on record. Also, a number of names have been used in lists of determinations and in labelling specimens which should be published, even though, in some cases, study is continuing on the problems concerned. Taxa belonging to the genera Equisetum, Setaria, Acer, Oenothera, and Hedyotis are discussed in this paper.

Hamilton McSparrin Gamble was born at Moorefield, Virginia, October 25, 1838, and practically his whole life was spent in the town of his nativity. He was a son of James Carr Gamble and Mrs. Elizabeth Maria Williams Gamble. From his early boyhood he was of a studious turn of mind and a lover of nature; and many hours and days he spent with rod and gun along the banks of the beautiful South Branch of the Potomac, or wandering among the hills and mountains of his native county, enjoying more the great beauties of mountain, forest and stream than the sport of hunting or fishing. For he was one of those of whom our American poet, Bryant, spoke, when he wrote: “To him, who in the love of nature, Holds communion with her visible forms, She speaks a various language.”

Tennessee’s bryophyte flora ranks among the richest and best-known in this country. Many references in the literature point to reports made for this state by competent observers. As one would expect, they gathered their material mainly in those sections of Tennessee where the bryophyte flora showed its most varied display. Large portions of the state were thus omitted from their field work and publications. As far as the writer knows, the list presented here is the first to give distributional data on bryophytes occurring in Tennessee on a state-wide basis.