Book Reviews: An Introduction to the Plant Kingdom
Book Reviews: An Introduction to the Plant Kingdom
Book Reviews: An Introduction to the Plant Kingdom
Book Reviews: Textbook of Dendrology
Book Reviews: Continuation of the Flora of West Virginia
The “mimosa tree,” or sensitive tree (Albizzia julibrissin) was introduced into Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky as an ornamental but a few short decades ago and it has proved quite popular throughout our region, especially in the mountain counties of Kentucky and the Tug river counties of West Virginia (mainly Mingo and McDowell). This tree is now much in demand for lawn, park and roadside planting, and the writer has had requests for young mimosas from persons as far north as Wayne county, Ohio. The tree is said to have come from Asia and Africa, and is subtropical. While this tree seems quite hardy in the above region, I am much interested in knowing whether it will thrive in Northern Ohio, and will have a report on this later.
In 1942, Dr. E. Lucy Braun described a new species of Solidago, S. albopilosa, which she had discovered in the sandstone “rockhouses” of Menifee and Powell counties of Kentucky. In her publication on this plant (2), she stated that it was evidently related to S. flexicaulis L. (S. latifolia L.) although clearly specifically distinct from that species.
Dr. R. M. Harper, of the University of Alabama has recently called attention to the fact that many sketches of the inflorescence of Oxydendrum are incorrect. This led the present writer to make some observations, with the following results.
In 1957 rosettes apparently of Rorippa sylvestris appeared in a clear area in my garden. These did not flower but spread rapidly from the original small colony of a few plants during the season of 1957. Wishing to learn more concerning these plants and to identify the species with more certainty, I allowed them to remain to observe their flowers. The small colony of a few plants had spread very rapidly in 1958, forming a large dense colony of rampant matted, more or less spreading or ascending stems, which showed tiny buds and unopened flowers in profusion. The colony now covered an area near 25 to 30 square feet in area. The flowers appeared to be abortive, remained closed and produced no normal blossoms, siliques or seed at any time.
A recent list of the ferns and fern-allies of Kentucky (Reed, in Castanea 23: 1-13, 1958.) gives the county-by-county distributions of eighty-one taxa. That account summarizes the published distribution data, and to this there are added approximately 250 new county records of ferns and fern-allies which are to “form the basis of a new Fern Flora of Kentucky”. Now that the herbarium of the Department of Botany of the University of Kentucky is being reactivated following the disastrous fire in 1948, numerous new distribution records for Kentucky plants are coming to light. The present report lists approximately 150 new county records for ferns and fern-allies alone. One taxon which is new for the State and is represented among these is Aspleniumn gravesii Maxon.
The large number of reservoirs, artificial lakes, and farm ponds created in recent years has increased tremendously the number of situations open to invasion by aquatic plant species. Many hydrophytes are widely dispersed and local irregularities in distribution may simply reflect the presence or absence of bodies of water within the area. Other species are not so wide-spread and their restricted distribution is not easily explained. It is, to be expected, however, that many aquatic plants now showing discontinuous distributions will gradually extend their present ranges into newly-created bodies of water.