Systematic Botany

When some years ago the reaction against the old botany and in favor of plant morphology, and later plant physiology, took place, systematic botany was pushed into the back-ground, indeed in many of our institutions it was barred entirely

Living Plants as Geological Factors

The importance of water as a geological agent, both constructive and destructive, is so great and its effects are everywhere so patent, that by contrast the importance of other agents is underestimated, or in large part over looked. Among these underestimated agents plants may be classed so far as their modern work is concerned

The Biological Aspects of the Flood-Control and Drainage Problems

A discussion of the relation of plants (chiefly) to water-conservation, erosion and silting, etc., together with the possible uses of the areas subject to overflow

How Shall We Treat Our State Parks?

The law creating state parks in Iowa specifically provides for the preservation of areas of historic or scientific interest, or possessing scenic beauty, and not alone for recreation purposes. It was never contemplated or expected that any one of the state parks would meet all of the requirements indicated, but that each purpose would be served by some, or parts of some of the areas selected. There is a growing tendency to regard both our national and state parks as mere recreation or picnic grounds, and their value is being measured in many quarters merely by the numbers of visitors

The Use of Common Names for Plants

A plea is frequently made by lovers or amateur students of plants for the use of so-called common (or vernacular) names for our species. Sometimes it is voiced also by secondary school teachers of botany, and last year it was included in one of the official reports of this Academy. The writer has received a number of written and verbal complaints aimed at the use of scientific names only, in papers treating of the plants of our state, and every other botanist in the state undoubtedly has had similar experience. In view of these circumstances it seems worthwhile to note some of the difficulties which lie in the way of the general use of common names

A Hybrid Oak

The northern limit of the distribution of Quercus imbricaria Michx. and Quercus palustris Muench, in the valley of the Iowa River is reached near Hills in Johnson County. Here and southward both species occupy the alluvial bottom lands, and before the extensive clearing of the alluvial forests they were freely intermingled. In view of this fact and of the well-known tendency of oaks to hybridize it is not surprising that forms which are evidently hybrids occur

Presidential Address - Botany in Its Relation to Good Citizenship

There are devotees of science who are impatient at every mention of any connection between their favorite branch and the everyday affairs of men. There are those to whom purely scientific attainment is so sacred that any attempt to profane it with suggestion of profit or practical return is sacrilege. While we must admire the unselfish devotion which has prompted men to give their lives to scientific effort without hope or thought of material reward, we must also recognize the fact that the days of exclusiveness are past-that learning is no longer confined to the Cloister of the monk or the den of the savant-and that the greater availability of means and methods of investigation, together with the prospect of practical application of scientific principles, have produced a thirst for knowledge which exists far beyond the walls of the laboratory. Men now seek results from every effort, and on all sides we find scientific principles applied to the profit and the material advantage of man. He employs them to combat disease; to add to his personal comfort and convenience; to preserve or increase the fruits of his labor; and for direct personal profit in the countless industrial pursuits in which these principles are applied

The Loess and the Antiquity of Man

Reports on the antiquity of man in Europe and on both the American continents, contain frequent references to loess, and repeated efforts have been made to establish the antiquity of man on the basis of the relation of human remains and artifacts to supposed loess. Such efforts have been uniformly unsuccessful, and the weakness of these cases has resulted chiefly from the following causes

The Loess of the Paha and River-Ridge

The term paha was first applied to isolated knobs and ridges within what we now know as the Iowan drift border by McGee, who refers to them as loess-capped eminences, sometimes elongated to ridges miles in length, sometimes shortened to elliptical hills, and again describes the individual paha as an elongated swell of soft and graceful contour, standing apart on the plain or else connected with its fellows sometimes in long lines, again in congeries, and locally merging to form broad loess plateaus

The Genesis of Loess: A Problem in Plant Ecology

The question of the origin of the loess of the Mississippi valley has attracted the attention of the geologists of the country for two-thirds of a century. The consideration of the question has been left almost entirely to geologists, who have offered various explanations of loess-formation, all based practically on physical grounds