Biology

Abstract

THIS contribution to the geobotany of Switzerland (the seventeenth in the series edited by Riibel and Brockmann-Jerosch) deals with an area on the western border of Switzerland of an altitude not exceeding 1,334 m. A full account is given of the geological, edaphic and climatic characteristics of the area. The vegetation types include forests of conifers (Picea excelsa pure or mixed with Abies alba) and deciduous trees, wooded pastures, meadows, hydrophilous formations, peat-bogs, formations on rocks, screes and stony ground, and cultivated land. These are dealt with in detail, the descriptions and lists being illustrated by photographs reproduced as plates and text-figures. A large-scale map of the vegetation zones of the Lac des Tailleres indicates the detailed nature of the survey. The most striking feature of the publication is, however, a folding map in a dozen colours of the whole area on the scale of 1:25,000. The map not only shows the distribution of the types of vegetation, but also, by means of symbols, that of the more important species.

Le Haut-Jura neuchâtelois nord-occidental.

Par Prof. Henri Spinner. (Materiaux pour le levé géobotanique de la Suisse, Fascicule 17: Commission phytogéographique de la Société helvétique des Sciences naturelles.) Pp. 197 + 8 plates. (Bern and Berlin: Hans Huber, 1932.) 12 francs; 9.60 gold marks.