Volume 30 – Issue 4 (Dec 1965)

Professor emeritus of botany, West Virginia University, died May 3, 1965, at Orlando, Florida. He was born at Republic, Ohio, March 21, 1886 and received his graduate training at the University of Chicago. He was head of the department of botany, West Virginia University, from 1923 to 1933, and of the department of biology from 1936 until his retirement in 1948. He served as lieutenant colonel in the air force in World War Ⅱ. He was director of the University field courses in biology from 1926 to 1939. He was co-author of a popular textbook, General Biology, and of the Flora of West Virginia.

Department of Biology, University of Chattanooga, died on July 27, 1965. She was born April 23, 1902, and was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. She had served as associate professor of biology at the University of Chattanooga since 1927. Her special field of endeavor was taxonomy, especially the taxonomy of ferns.

The following are new state and county records of plants collected in West Virginia by the author during the 1965 season

The teaching of general biology in colleges is undergoing tremendous changes in this decade. A course which has been taught primarily as a descriptive science is now becoming one primarily analytical. Undergraduate biology is more and more dependent on physics, mathematics, and chemistry.

Coos County is the largest and northernmost of the counties of New Hampshire. It has a land area of 1,791 sq. mi., compared to 1,058 for the State of Rhode Island. Large areas lie at an elevation of over 2,000 ft., and some of the highest and best known mountains of the northeastern United States are located in the county. Included is the famous Presidential Range, with Mt. Washington (6,288 ft.), Mt. Adams (5,798 ft.), Mt. Jefferson (5,715 ft.), Mt. Madison (5,363 ft.), Mt. Monroe (5,385 ft.), Mt. John Quincy Adams (5,450 ft.), etc.

A publication that might be imitated profitably by numerous other political subdivisions is this colorful brochure recently published by the Oregon Travel Information Division of the Highway Department. The author has carefully chosen his subjects to include those most characteristic of the various geographic regions of the State and in very brief space has mentioned over 100 species.

Wild areas are being rapidly reduced in size in the United States, especially in the vicinity of large cities, and the preservation of sanctuaries in metropolitan districts is worthy of note. The Greenbrook Sanctuary is included in the New Jersey section of the Palisades Interstate Park, which overlooks the Hudson River. The author has made a careful study of the 150-acre tract, describing geology, soils, climate, land use history, the various biotic communities, and animal factors. Folded maps show topography, trails, and plant communities.

This is an outstanding book on the natural history of the, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, by the outstanding living authority on the plant life of the area. Arthur Stupka became park naturalist here in 1935 and has served as naturalist and biologist for 30 years in this National Park. Many of the notes included in this book are from his personal nature journal kept during this period.

This little paperback book includes a series of lectures given in memory of Karl Taylor Compton, ninth president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Doctor Lwoff is head of the department of microbial physiology at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. In his lectures he attempts to give a concise explanation of the biological order as a whole. The book is well written and may be regarded as a sophisticated summary of the nature of life. It is especially directed towards young physicists and chemists but should be of value to students of the biological sciences as well.

This plant physiology book is an effort to span the gap, existing between the student’s knowledge of scientific generalization, and the experimental work which produced that generalization. It also is an effort, to show that a “fact” may mean several different things, or have several different applications under varying circumstances.