Abstract
THE first series of the “Vegetationsbilder” met with well-merited success, and a second series has been appearing at intervals during the past year. Of the contributors to the first series, Drs. G. Karsten and E. Stahl have again supplied material, the former taking up a never-failing source of interest in the mangrove vegetation, whilst Dr. Stahl, in a double part, deals with the xerophytes and conifers of Mexico; amongst the latter the primeval Taxodium trees growing in the park of Chapultepec and the sombre cypresses on the road to the sacred mount of Amecameca bear the impress of historic antiquity. Another number, consisting of parts v. to vii., is devoted to the representation of mid-European forest trees, in accordance with an expressed desire for subjects taken from native sources. The photographs taken by Dr. L. Klein include typical specimens of conifers and beeches in the Schwarzwald and Switzerland, and others showing the changes wrought by browsing animals and devastating winds; many of them are excellent, notably a scene of windblown pines which have been entirely cleared of branches except to leeward, but similar subjects are accessible to most botanists, and for this reason they do not possess the interest attaching to photographs from less accessible countries. The names of several new contributors are announced, among them Mr. E. Ule, whose character sketches of epiphytes in the Amazon region of Peru appear in the first part of this series. Of the Cactacese, which are widely spread through South America, a number of genera include epiphytic species, and in this region Cereus is predominant. Cereus megalanthus, a species which might be called a climbing epiphyte, is shown perched on a Ficus tree. Another curious condition is that of a flourishing bromeliad, Streptocalyx angustifolius, where, according to the writer, the exuberance of vegetation is so directly traceable to ants that he compares the phenomenon with the fungus gardens described a few years ago by Dr. A. Moeller. The last part of the series contains photographs taken in the Italian colony of Eritraea by Dr. Schweinfurth. Hyphaene thebaica, the doum palm, familiar on account of its branching habit, the sycomore fig, and an arboreous Euphorbia are among the characteristic specimens chosen to illustrate different regions in the country.
Vegetationsbilder.
Edited by Dr. G. Karsten H. Schenck. Second series. Parts i.—viii. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1904.)
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Vegetationsbilder . Nature 72, 100 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072100a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072100a0