Volume 27 – Issue 3 (Sep 1962)

This beautiful and scholarly book is the most valuable contribution to the knowledge of the vascular flora of Ohio to appear in many years. It should prove valuable not only to residents of Ohio but also to those of neighboring states. Keys are provided for both summer and winter use and excellent line drawings illustrate about three hundred species, many of these being in both summer and winter condition. Technical descriptions are reduced to a minimum and only those recognition characters which are useful in field work and which distinguish related species are emphasized. A great deal of information of a general nature is presented, including ecology, geographic distribution, economic significance, and other items of popular interest. Over three hundred distribution maps show ranges by counties. The author, Dr. Braun, professor emeritus of plant ecology at the University of Cincinnati, author of Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America, is eminently qualified for the authorship of this truly outstanding work.

Recently, while involved in some extensive pteridological chromosome studies in connection with National Science Foundation Grant G-10846 at the University of Michigan, we developed rather chronic cases of “preaxial digititis” (sore thumbs). As the sori of ferns contain sporangia of various stages, many of them are thick-walled and contain hard spores. In order, then, to press hard enough on the cover slip to squash the dividing sporocytes, we practically squashed our thumbs as well. After the condition became acute, Mr. Paul Chen came up with the idea of a “chromosome crusher” which not only relieved the thumb condition but gave squashes that far excelled the “thumb squash technique.” The idea was so successful that we are here describing it, so that others who have to work with mixed materials that include both soft and hard cells, may be able to use it in their work.

Hepatica americana (DC.) Ker. is a springblooming wild-flower which is found in deciduous woods over much of the eastern United States. Fernald (1950) includes several color forms, three of which, forma purpurea Farw. (deep purple), forma rhodanthe Fern. (pink), and forma candida Fern. (white) occur in Piedmont North Carolina. Hybridization experiments performed shortly before the rediscovery of Mendel’s work (Hildebrand, 1900) suggest that flower color in Hepatica is genetically determined, white or pinkish-flowered plants, when crossed with blue-flowered plants, producing all blue-flowered offspring.

The distribution of Tortula pagorum (Milde) De Not. in the eastern United States is unique for it is generally associated with urban areas. In discussing this phenemonon, Dr. Anderson (1943) felt that this species did not persist during periods of glaciation and submergence in the Appalachians, but rather in the southwestern United States in the general region of Arizona and New Mexico. Following a suggestion of Dr. Sharp (1939), Dr. Anderson concluded that it was only after man appeared and new conditions of habitat were produced that T. pagorum migrated from its western survival center to regions east of the Mississippi River and probably undetermined areas between the Mississippi River and Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Since our publication in 1955 of the “Orchids of Western Pennsylvania,” continued study of the flora of western Pennsylvania has revealed many additions to the distribution records.

The genus Trillium is found throughout the State of Kentucky from the top of Black Mountain in the southeastern portion of the state where T. undulatum barely enters the state, west to the Jackson Purchase area and northward throughout the state to the Ohio River. However, the species are not found all over the state, but rather each has its definite range, correlated with the soils.

Moonworts and grapeferns, the genus Botrychium, are of special botanical interest for being in many respects the most generalized morphologically of all living Pteropsida. The evergreen grapeferns (Subg. Sceptridium) of the eastern United States are noteworthy for other reasons as well, viz. for their ensembles of subtle and confusing distinctions, including details of leaf cutting, periodicity, pigmentation, root diameters, spores, ranges, and optimum habitats; and for their ability to form “genus communities” (Wherry, 1961) of two, three, or four species growing side by side in the same locality and habitat. Often in a colony of a locally abundant species, a single plant of a rarer species may be discovered. It is desirable, therefore, that large local population samples be examined in studying these plants. Destruction of the colonies may be avoided by collecting only the leaves and not disturbing the underground stems and buds.

The completion of Devils Kitchen Lake in Williamson and Union counties has presented a unique opportunity for floristics study in southern Illinois. The area has been investigated extensively by graduate students at Southern Illinois University, and during 1960, in addition to their study, the students have prepared a paper on the floristics of the Devils Kitchen Lake area. It is hoped that this material will prove of value to other floristics workers and will serve as a foundation for future successional studies in the area. Scott Abney, Gary Dillard, James Ellis, Robert deFilipps, Donald Lawrence, David Stickel, and William Wallace have contributed to this study.