This book will be of interest to most biologists and botanists, except those in the far frontier of research. Dr. Knobloch has put together a series of readings and researches, calculated to take the reader from historical beginnings through modern thought to advanced researches. He includes nearly all areas of Botany, and many of the most authoritative writers in those areas.
The biota of Giles County is well known because years of research and teaching activity at the Mountain Lake Biological Station have brought many specialists to the area. No lichenological studies specifically on Giles County, however, have previously been published. The aim of this paper is to report the species of foliose and fruticose lichens collected in the vicinity of Mountain Lake and thereby to add to the already long list of plants known to be present in the total flora there.
For over sixty years Mohr’s Plant Life of Alabama (1901) has been the most complete single catalogue of the State flora. R. M. Harper has made more contributions toward our knowledge of the Alabama flora than any other individual since Mohr. Among Harper’s numerous publications is a catalogue of the woody plants of Alabama (1928), a monograph on the forests of Alabama (1943), and a report on Alabama weeds (1944). These publications contain references about the Alabama flora in earlier years.
The integration of gum naval stores and wood production suggests the need for knowledge of fertilization for stimulating growth of trees large enough to be “worked” for gum. Associated with this is an interest in fertilization for gum and cone production and seedling development. Hence, this study was installed in a 21-year-old slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantation in the upper Coastal Plain of Georgia. The soil was low in nitrogen (trace), phosphorus (about 4 ppm P), and potassium (about 5 ppm K). Calcium analyzed medium (about 28 ppm Ca). The pH averaged 5.0.
The Calycanthaceae are a small family with a disjunct distribution consisting of Chimonanthus in China and Calycanthus in the southeastern United States and California. Although the family is relatively primitive among the Angiospermae and falls within the Ranales which has been the object of much research, a detailed and comprehensive study of the Calycanthaceae has never been undertaken.
Most of Petit Jean Mountain, one of several flat-topped ridges in the Arkansas River Valley, is in the southwest section of Conway County and consists of three distinct parts, known locally as Petit Jean, Rose Creek, and Cove Mountains (Fig. 1). Considered together, these parts almost encircle Ada Valley, which is about eleven miles in width. Elevations range from 1,120 feet above sea level at High Point to 323 feet at Ada in the valley. The local “Petit Jean Mountain” is the part on which Petit Jean State Park is located and on which Winthrop Rockefeller and many other families now live. Many interesting geological features are found in this section of the mountain. The most spectacular is Cedar Falls, where Cedar Creek plunges over a precipice almost 100 feet high, then flows on down through a rapidly-deepening canyon to Petit Jean River. Other interesting features are the Rock House, a large circular chamber about 120 feet in diameter and with a ceiling about forty feet high, the Palisades, the carpet and turtle rocks, Bear Cave Rocks, the Grotto, and the Natural Bridge, about seventy feet high with an open arch of about forty feet. These rock formations are in the hard, massive layers of the Hartshorne sandstone which overlays conformably the sandstones and shales of the Atoka formation of the lower slopes and valleys. The Atoka sandstones are slightly calcareous in places, but no limestone occurs. Fossils are found more frequently in the Atoka sandstones than in the harder Hartshorne. These are Paleozoic rocks of Carboniferous age. Petit Jean Mountain structurally consists of the Pontoon and Poteau synclines within the synclinorium of the Arkansas River Valley.