Volume 5 – Issue 7 (Nov 1940)

Welcome indeed is every new book which tends to make us feel better aquainted with the founders of botany in America, who, are all too often known to us simply by their names. Many early botanists, through the very nature of their chosen field, spent their lives in semi-retirement and made few contributions of interest to the general pub- lic. Rarely have they had biographers, except for the individuals whose botanical activities were merely supplementary to their participation in public affairs.

Unusual would be the American botanist who had not enjoyed the use of Deam’s publications on Grasses, Shrubs or Trees of Indiana for these are useful over a wide area of the United States. There is now available a Flora of Indiana which includes all of Deam’s previous publications and is expanded to cover all vascular plants native or established in the state.

In checking over some collections made by the author in Wirt County, West Virginia, over a period of the past ten years a few species came to light which have apparently not been previously reported for the state.

The Southern Appalachian Botanical Club met with the South- eastern Section of the Botanical Society of America at Highlands, N. C., on June 15-17, 1940. Twenty-four members and visitors attended the meeting. Among the visitors were Dr. Irwin Boeshare of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Mildred E. Faust of Syracuse University.

On the morning of May 31, 1940, members of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Club, the Muhlenberg Botanical Club, and the Sullivant Moss Society met at Romney, W. Va. for a joint foray into one of the most picturesque sections of W. Va. Under the leadership of Dr. Earl L. Core, Dr. H. A. Davis, and Mr. Wilbert Frye, the party drove north on Route 28 to Springfield where the first stop was made. Among the more unusual plants found here were Krigia virginica (L.) Willd., Paronychia dichotoma (L.) Nutt. and Talinum teretifolium Pursh. The last named species is not known to occur elsewhere in W. Va. The study here was hampered and definitely curtailed by the rapidly rising waters of the South Branch of the Potomac which overflowed the road in some places.

From the point of view of the ecologists rare plants listed are extremely interesting, for they are indicative of the extent of range of the respective species. While engaged in ecological work through the study of the distribution of woody plants in Kentucky the writer discovered many noteworthy facts.