bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Epitaphs
Authors: Meyer Elizabeth A.
Published: May 2006

It is now notorious that the production of inscriptions in the Roman Empire was not constant over time, but rose over the first and second centuries A.D. and fell in the third. Ramsay MacMullen pointed this out more than five years ago, with conclusions more cautionary than explanatory: ‘history is not being written in the right way’, he said, for historians have deduced Rome's decline from evidence that–since it appears only epigraphically–has merely disappeared for its own reasons, or have sought general explanations of decline in theories political, economic, or even demographic in nature, none of which can, in turn, explain the disappearance of epigraphy itself. Why this epigraphic habit rose and fell MacMullen left open to question, although he did postulate control by a ‘sense of audience’. The purpose of this paper is to propose that this ‘sense of audience’ was not generalized or generic, but depended on a belief in the value of romanization, of which (as noted but not explained by MacMullen's article) the epigraphic habit is also a rough indicator. Epitaphs constitute the bulk of all provincial inscriptions and in form and number are (generally speaking) the consequence of a provincial imitation of characteristically Roman practices, an imitation that depended on the belief that Roman legal status and style were important, and that may indeed have ultimately depended, at least in North Africa, on the acquisition or prior possession of that status. Such status-based motivations for erecting an epitaph help to explain not only the chronological distribution of epitaphs but also the differences in the type and distribution of epitaphs in the western and eastern halves of the empire. They will be used here moreover to suggest an explanation for the epigraphic habit as a whole.
Cicero's Officium in the Civil War
Authors: Brunt P. A.
Published: May 2006

If great men were the driving force in historical development, the history of antiquity according to Beloch could not be written; our knowledge of their actions is incomplete and their personalities are virtually unknown. ‘In the best case we have only a couple of anecdotes of altogether dubious value, but almost never a line from their own hand; the first and nearly the last of whose character we can form a picture in some degree adequate is Cicero; apart from him we may perhaps count Julian, who already stands on the threshold of a new age.’ In this judgement there are obvious exaggerations, but its truth in many instances is beyond question, and those historians who feel obliged to hold that the course of history is not entirely determined by impersonal factors, which may also be no better known, must acknowledge that any reconstruction of developments in the ancient world is speculative to a greater degree than for some more recent periods.
The Lex Irnitana and Procedure in the Civil Courts
Authors: Rodger Alan
Published: May 2006

The procedural rules of civil courts stimulate interest among few except the lawyers who practise in them. The procedures of the courts of the Roman world may therefore not seem an enticing topic. But procedure lies at the heart of any legal system and the Roman legal system is no exception. So when the discovery of the Lex Irnitana brought us fresh material about the jurisdiction and procedure of the local magistrates and courts at Irni, it added greatly to our understanding of one of the central institutions of the first-century Roman world. But the information is not always easy to interpret. The purpose of this article is first to try to solve an apparent mystery in Chapter 90 of the Lex and then to use the new material to fill out our picture of procedure in this period. In this way it is hoped to contribute to a fuller understanding of the Lex Irnitana as a whole.
Three Thoughts on Roman Private law and the Lex Irnitana
Authors: Johnston David
Published: May 2006

New discoveries are customarily hailed as events of the greatest importance; whether they always are is a matter more for the judgement of posterity than of the discoverer. But the Lex Irnitana is exceptional. Discovered in Spain in 1981, it has now been published for the first time with translation and commentary. It is the most complete copy yet discovered of the Flavian municipal law already known in more fragmentary form from Salpensa and Malaca. For Roman legal historians the detailed provisions on civil jurisdiction in the tenth and last tablet are of the greatest interest. They fall into three main areas: the first deals with the competence of local jurisdiction and the display of the relevant edictal remedies (chapters 84 and 85); next follow four chapters concerned with the selection of a pool of judges for each year and provisions on how to select them or recuperatores in any given case; finally the law regulates adjournments requested or required and the days on which cases may be heard or for which they may be adjourned. The law is notably well structured, an advantage for us since unexpected omissions may be regarded as significant rather than due to related material being scattered through many tablets, some not extant.
The Imperial Reliefs from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias
Authors: Smith R. R. R.
Published: May 2006

In 1979, during his continuing excavation of the city of Aphrodisias, Professor K. T. Erim discovered a large temple and sanctuary complex dedicated to Aphrodite and the Julio-Claudian emperors (theTheoi Sebastoi). It had a remarkable sculptural display of which much has survived—there are about eighty relief panels. The complex would probably have been called a Sebasteion: we know from an unrelated inscription that there was one at Aphrodisias. It is of great interest to both the historian and art-historian of the early empire, giving a rare combination of buildings, sculpture, and inscriptions from a unified excavated context and providing an unrivalled picture of the physical setting of the imperial cult in a Greek city. The sculptured reliefs give a great range and combination of iconography quite unexpected in such a context—mythological, allegorical, and imperial. The myth panels seem to offer a missing link between the iconographic repertoire of the Hellenistic world and that used under the Roman empire, while the allegorical and imperial panels give a detailed plcture of the emperor and Rome as seen from the Greek East that is not available elsewhere.
Stigma: Tattooing and Branding in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
Authors: Jones C. P.
Published: May 2006

One of the best episodes in Petronius' Satyrica involves the presence of the narrator, Encolpius, his lover Giton, and the rogue-poet Eumolpus, on board a ship owned by Lichas, of which another passenger is the flighty matron, Tryphaena. In an earlier episode of the novel, Lichas seems to have been the lover of Encolpius and Tryphaena of Giton, though both affairs had ended in enmity. There ensues a comic deliberation between Encolpius and Giton about ways of escape. One of them involves the ink which Eumolpus has brought aboard as a man of literature. Encolpius suggests that he and Giton dye themselves with it from head to foot and pretend to be Eumolpus' Ethiopian (that is, African) slaves. Giton contemptuously dismisses the idea, and proposes suicide. Eumolpus intervenes with what he considers a better idea. His manservant, who is a barber, will shave the heads and eyebrows of Encolpius and Giton, and then he himself 'will mark your faces with an elaborate inscription to give the impression that you have been punished with a mark. That way the same letters will both allay the suspicions of your pursuers and hide your faces with the appearance of punishment' ('sequar ego frontes notans inscriptione sollerti, ut uideamini stigmate esse puniti. ita eaedem litterae et suspicionem declinabunt quaerentium et uultus umbra supplicii tegent'). This is agreed to, and 'Eumolpus filled the foreheads of us both with huge letters, and with generous hand covered our whole faces with the wellknown inscription of runaway slaves' ('impleuit Eumolpus frontes utriusque ingentibus litteris et notum fugitiuorum epigramma per totam faciem liberali manu duxit').
The Background to the Grain Law of Gaius Gracchus
Authors: Garnsey Peter , Rathbone Dominic
Published: May 2006

One of the measures carried by Gaius Gracchus in the course of his first tribunate in 123–2 B.C. provided for the regular sale of grain to citizens of Rome at the price of 6⅓ asses per modius. Gracchus also, presumably by the same law, provided for the construction of state granaries.

The sources for the law are meagre. None of them is contemporary, and those later writers who do comment on the law furnish few details. What is known of its content is conveyed in a brief sentence from Livy's Epitomator supported by a scholiast on Cicero'spro Sestio, and in a few words of Appian. The Epitomator and Scholiast give the price at which the grain was sold.
From Mountain to Lovers' Tryst: Horace's Soracte Ode
Authors: Vessey D. W. T.
Published: May 2006

Vides ut alta stet nive candidum

Soracte, nec iam sustineant onus

silvae laborantes, geluque

flumina constiterint acuto.

dissolve frigus ligna super foco

large reponens atque benignius

deprome quadrimum Sabina,

o Thaliarche, merum diota:

permitte divis cetera, qui simul

stravere ventos aequore fervido

deproeliantis, nec cupressi

nec veteres agitantur orni.

quid sit futurum eras fuge quaerere et

quern Fors dierum cumque dabit lucro

appone, nec dulcis amores

sperne puer neque tu choreas,

donec virenti canities abest

morosa. nunc et campus et areae

lenesque sub noctem susurri

composita repetantur hora,

nunc et latentis proditor intimo

gratus puellae risus ab angulo

pignusque dereptum lacertis

aut digito male pertinaci.

‘This poem has been destroyed by the critics,’ David West has written. And certainly a familiar dilemma arises in relation to it. We admire and remember the poem; but, when we turn to some of its interpreters, we may feel our confidence diminished. We may wonder if we overlooked something on first and later reading and if our impressions, however favourable, were ill-grounded.
Symposium and Genre in the Poetry of Horace
Authors: Murray Oswyn
Published: May 2006

The concept of the genre is a problematical one, not least because each critical tradition uses the notion in different ways. My own approach is related to the needs and interests of the cultural historian; it will thus at least serve to clarify basic points of methodology if I first try to define what I mean by the genre. For me the genre takes its origin in the literary expression of basic social needs, and the differences between the genres begin as differences in both the occasion of performance and the purpose of performance. Thus to take classical examples, a tale of heroic exploits, a wedding song, a lament, a hymn to the gods, a drinking song, are performed on different occasions and therefore have different characteristics, different accompaniments of dance, ritual, music or action; but a particular event in each category will have similarities with other events in that category, and therefore appropriate conventions and appropriate metrical patterns will emerge. Similarly the purpose of the event will affect its presentation in a variety of ways: a hymn to the gods may praise or call for aid, a public speech may seek to expound a policy or to secure a condemnation. In this sense, and to this extent, I find myself in agreement with Francis Cairns: ‘The genres are as old as organized societies; they are also universal. Within all human lives there are a number of important recurrent situations which, as societies develop, come to call for regular responses, both in words and in actions.’
Pathos, Tragedy and Hope in the Aeneid
Authors: Jenkyns Richard
Published: May 2006

In the course of this century fashions in classical scholarship have come and gone; out in the wider world the Victorians have fallen from grace and been restored to it again; but throughout this time there seems to have endured a picture of Virgil as a Victorian poet avant la lettre, a Tennysonian aesthete, languidly and compassionately melancholic, shedding warm soft tears as he contemplates the perennial sorrows of humanity. ‘Sunt lacrimae rerum’—we are wary of that phrase now, conscious that it cannot bear the significance traditionally attributed to it; but the idea persists that Virgil views the world as a vale of tears. The modern critics do not put it quite that way—they prefer longer and less perspicuous words–but that is none the less, I think, what many of them are really saying.
Polyonomy in the Late Roman Aristocracy: the Case of Petronius Probus
Authors: Cameron Alan
Published: May 2006

No aristocrat of the fourth century A.D. was so brilliantly successful or so widely hated as S. Petronius Probus. Greedy for public office when his peers preferred opulent leisure, more at home amid the intrigues of court than the salons of Rome, a Christian when most of his peers were still pagan, he rose to a pinnacle of wealth and power.

His unusually long career is abundantly documented by literary, legal and epigraphic sources. But the details have always been problematic. And in 1971 G. Barbieri published a new dedication from Capua that raised a whole new set of problems.
Epigraphic Consciousness
Authors: Mann J. C.
Published: May 2006

The paper by Saller and Shaw in JRS 1984 calls for some comment on its treatment of epigraphic evidence, and especially on the question of what we can expect inscriptions to tell us about the people of a given area.

A first point to make in relation to their argument is that the poorer classes throughout the empire could not in any case afford stone inscriptions. If, then, the extended family is (as could be argued) an adaptation of the nuclear family induced by poverty, rather than its biological or cultural predecessor, evidence for it will naturally tend to be absent from the epigraphic record, even if it is in fact quite common at the lowest levels of society.

But my present purpose is to consider a different aspect of the use of inscriptions—the question of habit, a subject recently raised by Ramsay MacMullen. After examining the relevance of this matter to the claim by Sailer and Shaw that there was little or no local recruitment to the Roman army in Britain, it will be argued that the epigraphic evidence cannot be used to support this view.
History and Rhetoric in Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Authors: Fox Matthew
Published: May 2006

This article explores the relationship between historical truth and rhetorical education in theAntiquitates Romanaeof Dionysius of Halicarnassus. These two concerns dominate Dionysius' output, and have provided fuel for a long tradition of adverse criticism. Schwartz'sREarticle set the standard for a series of dismissive accounts; his premise is that by choosing a period of such remote history, Dionysius can fulfil his desire to make history the servant of rhetorical display, adding, with scorn, that Dionysius' love of the Romans disqualifies him from being a real Greek. Palm, still using Schwartz over fifty years later, is so convinced that Dionysius cannot have believed what he was writing that he ascribes the meticulously executed proof that the Romans were Greeks to ‘paradoxe Effekte’, in which anyone writing a rhetorical exercise of this kind would be careful to indulge. Polemic has recently waned, although by far the most common use of Dionysius' history is as a source for antiquarian anecdote or the lost annalistic tradition, often to highlight the originality of Livy. The recently published lectures of Gabba will do much to redress the balance, and are the first concerted attempt at harmonizing the details of Dionysius' rhetorical theory with his history.
Abduction Marriage in Antiquity: A Law of Constantine (CThIX 24.1) and its Social Context
Authors: Evans-Grubbs Judith
Published: May 2006

On I April A.D. 326 the Emperor Constantine issued a strongly worded edict (CThIX. 24. 1) violently attacking the practice of abduction marriage or bride theft. Addressed ‘to the people’ (‘ad populum’), the law demands the punishment of all persons involved in such cases, including even the girl herself and her parents, if they had later agreed to the marriage of their daughter with her abductor. This edict marks the first explicit recognition in Roman law of marriage by abduction, although it is clear from other literary sources that the phenomenon was not new to the age of Constantine.
Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt
Authors: Bowman Alan K. , Rathbone Dominic
Published: May 2006

These two inscriptions come from the precinct of the temple of Hathor at Denderah (Tentyra), capital of the Tentyrite nome, just north of Thebes in Upper Egypt. The impressive remains of the complex are mostly late Ptolemaic and Roman (re)constructions, but they look Pharaonic and suggest social and cultural continuity across the centuries. The inscriptions, however, illustrate the radical changes in communal organization and administration which the Romans introduced. These changes form the subject of this paper. The first inscription dates to 12 B.C., but is almost entirely in the pre-Roman tradition. It is a trilingual dedication with the primary version in demotic (i.e. Egyptian). Augustus is god, implicitly Pharaoh, and lacks his Roman titles. The strategos (governor of the nome) Ptolemaios gives himself obsolete court titles and a string of local priesthoods. Ptolemaios came from a family which had hereditarily held local priesthoods (and probably continued to hold them after him), and his father Panas had preceded him as strategos of the Tentyrite nome, retaining office through the Roman annexation. On this occasion Ptolemaios' dedication was personal, but other dedications show him acting, like his father, as the head of local cult associations. Ptolemaios is last attested as strategos in 5 B.C. Five years later, our second inscription, which dates to 23 September A.D. I, reveals a very different situation. The dedication was made on Augustus' birthday, and was finely inscribed in Greek only. The strategos Tryphon, whose name suggests an Alexandrian sent up to the Tentyrite nome, figures only as an element of the official dating clause standard throughout Roman Egypt; he is just a cog in the Roman administrative machine. The dedication was made corporately by the local community, structured, as we will see, on the new Roman model.
Insinuations of Womanly Influence: An Aspect of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy
Authors: Cooper Kate
Published: May 2006

Here is one of the laws of history: every event begins with a woman. It is the woman who confers life or death. It is in conformity with the nature of things that Helena should have converted Constantine. It is contrary to the nature of things that Constantine should have converted Helena.

While we may smile at the ruminations of a nineteenth-century bourgeois on the sexual politics of Constantine's conversion to Christianity, if we turn our attention for a moment from the Emperor to the Empire itself we will perceive that our own more scientific studies reflect a similar vision of Helena, refracted in the persons of pious matrons across the Empire. For we generally imagine the religious changes which swept the later Roman Empire as resulting from a fateful collaboration, that of a few unusually persuasive clerics with a multitude of devout Christian women, who enforced the views of their clerical friends at home, and shepherded their prominent husbands towards the once-only cleansing of baptism. The view has much to recommend it, and it has sparked some of the most interesting writing on late antiquity in recent decades, beginning with a celebrated contribution by Peter Brown to this journal.
Scale dependence of vegetation‐environment correlations: A case study of a North Carolina piedmont woodland
Authors: Reed R. A. , Peet R. K. , Palmer M. W. , White P. S.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Vegetation and its correlation with environment has been traditionally studied at a single scale of observation. If different ecological processes are dominant at different spatial and temporal scales, the results obtained from such observations will be specific to the single scale of observation employed and will lack generality. Consequently, it is important to assess whether the processes that determine community structure and function are similar at different scales, or whether, how rapidly, and under what circumstances the dominant processes change with scale of observation. Indeed, early work by Greig‐Smith and associates (Greig‐Smith 1952; Austin & Greig‐Smith 1968; see Greig‐Smith 1979; Kershaw & Looney 1985; Austin & Nicholls 1988) suggested that plant‐plant interactions are typically important at small scales, but that the physical environment dominates at large scales.

Using a gridded and mapped 6.6 ha portion of the Duke Forest on the North Carolina piedmont for a case study, we examined the importance of scale in vegetation studies by testing four hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that the correlation between vegetation composition and environment should increase with increasing grain (quadrat) size. Our results support this hypothesis. Second, we hypothesized that the environmental factors most highly correlated with species composition should be similar at all grain sizes within the 6.6‐ha study area, and should be among the environmental factors strongly correlated with species composition over the much larger extent of the ca. 3500 ha Duke Forest. Our data are not consistent with either portion of this hypothesis. Third, we hypothesized that at the smaller grain sizes employed in this study (< 256 m2), the composition of the tree canopy should contribute significantly to the vegetation pattern in the under‐story. Our results do not support this hypothesis. Finally, we predicted that with increased extent of sampling, the correlation between environment and vegetation should increase. Our data suggest the opposite may be true.

This study confirms that results of vegetation analyses can depend greatly on the grain and extent of the samples employed. Whenever possible, sampling should include a variety of grain sizes and a carefully selected sample extent so as to ensure that the results obtained are robust. Application of the methods used here to a variety of vegetation types could lead to a better understanding of whether different ecological processes typically dominate at different spatial scales.
Resprouting of Erica multiflora after experimental fire treatments
Authors: Lloret Francisco , López‐Soria Luis
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The effect of fire intensity ‐ both temperature and duration ‐ on the resprouting pattern of the evergreen Mediterranean shrub Erica multiflora in relation to plant size, was experimentally investigated by subjecting plants to the flame of a propane torch, and observing mortality and resprouting after 5 and 20 months.

Pre‐treatment plant size was not important in determining post‐fire plant survival, but it did influence the resprouting vigour, increasingly so with time. High temperatures induced higher mortality rates within populations, but duration of fire did not effect mortality. Biomass of resprouts was lower following more intense fire treatments, but this effect progressively disappeared over time, except in plants subjected to the most intense fire treatment. This is probably because of the increasing importance of the below‐ground organs for the regeneration of the above‐ground biomass. Some of the plants which were clipped but not exposed to fire also died 20 months after treatment. The effect of clipping onmortality andresprout‐ing response, estimated as biomass of resprouts, was not significantly different from the effect induced by either low or medium temperature treatments, but was significantly different when compared with the effect of high‐temperature treatments.

Field observations show that the establishment of seedlings of E. multiflora is rare both after fire and between fires. Thus, our data support the idea that both a single fire or clipping can diminish the population size of a resprouting species. We conclude that fire may have a stochastic effect on E. multiflora populations, due to the variation in fire intensity existing within a single burning stand.
Spatial and temporal variation in lightning ignitions in Sweden
Authors: Granström Anders
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Analysis of fire statistics revealed that there are steep gradients in the distribution of lightning‐caused fire ignitions in Sweden. The highest ignition density was found in the southeastern provinces of Kalmar and Östergötland, ca. 0.23/10 000 ha/yr. From there, densities generally declined both to the north and to the west, with a density averaging ca. 0.05 in the six northernmost provinces, and an equally low density in the southwestern province of Halland. For both northern and southern Sweden, lightning ignitions peaked in early July, but in the south the season for ignitions started 2–3 weeks earlier and ended 2–3 weeks later. The geographical gradients in lightning ignition density correspond to the average precipitation during summer. The patterns of lightning ignition densities may also indicate gradients in natural fire frequencies. This hypothesis is supported by the distribution of certain fire‐adapted plant species.
Tree limit dynamics ofBetula pubescensssp.tortuosain relation to climate variability: evidence from central Sweden
Authors: Kullman Leif
Published: May 2006

Abstract.The tree limit ofBetula pubescensssp.tortuosa(mountain birch) in the southern Swedish Scandes was monitored during 1972–1992. The study included various aspects of growth, vigour and reproduction ofBetula.The main focus was on the character and mechanics of the tree limit/climate equilibrium system. The tree limit, which changed in response to a temperature rise early this century, remained constant in position and tree physiognomy did not change, although the past 50 yr or so have been colder. Indeed, growth and reproductive effort and capacity decreased in this period. Obviously, most resources inBetulawere used to resist stress in the mature phase, resulting in delayed recession of trees. Unless drastic warming occurs, stem dieback is predicted for the near future. Even a minorclimatic disturbance would have an effect, because resources are gradually being depleted. Radial growth correlated most closely with the mean temperature in July. Particularly at the present‐day tree limit, the variance in annual growth could be largely explained by climatic factors. The hypothesis is that long‐term tree limit dynamics during the late Holocene is merely a matter of fluctuations in vegetative vigour and stature of old individuals. At the population level, response to climatic variability appears to be greatly delayed.
Impact of fire on Picea mariana and Pinus banksiana seedlings in subarctic lichen woodlands
Authors: Sirois Luc
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The demography of Picea mariana (black spruce) and Pinus banksiana (jack pine) seedlings was monitored through five censuses over 13 months in four different seed bed types after fire of four severity levels in lichen woodland. Most seeds germinated just before early frost in late summer 1990 or immediately after snow thaw in early spring 1991; the germination rate subsequently decreased. For both species, germination rate decreased along a gradient of fire severity. The proportion of Pinus seeds that produced a seedling surviving 13 months after sowing was 4.3 % and 0.4 % respectively in the intact lichen mat and in the mineral soil seed bed type. For Picea these values are 3.2 % and 0.2 % respectively. The low germination rate in a severely burned seed bed type appeared to be associated with the formation of a water‐repellent crust at the soil surface following the fire. Seedlings were contagiously distributed and were more frequent in flat and hollow microsites, where there is probably more water available than on bumps or among pebbles. Properties of experimentally burned seed bed types may differ from those under natural fires where regeneration by seed generally occurs following dispersal. However, the high germination rate observed in the intact lichen mat suggests that scattered lichen woodland patches may respond to increased seed input by a higher frequency of seedling establishment.
Distribution of Pteridophyta and Melastomataceae along an edaphic gradient in an Amazonian rain forest
Authors: Tuomisto Hanna , Ruokolainen Kalle
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Pteridophyta and Melastomataceae were studied in an area of non‐flooded (tierra firme) rain forest in Peruvian Amazonia, close to the village of Mishana (River Nanay, in the vicinity of Iquitos City). The general objective of the study was to establish a method for rapidly documenting changes in the floristic composition among and within rain forests in geologically different areas. More specifically, the changes in the plant communities were documented along an edaphic and topographic gradient from clay soil on level ground to quartzitic sand on a hill top. Two 5‐m‐wide, parallel transects were established 50 m apart. A total of 40 species of pteridophytes were found; 18 of these were confined to clayey soil and 11 to sandy soil. The total number of Melastomataceae on the transects was 22, and 14 of these were confined to clayey soil while only two were confined to sandy soil. Further differences in the abundance of many species correlated with drainage conditions and the accumulation of organic matter on the soil surface. Cluster analyses were made using both edaphic and floristic criteria, and in all cases the transects could be divided into distinct sections. Both transects gave rather similar results, and therefore it was concluded that the chosen transect width was sufficient to document the prevalent floristic patterns.
Centrolepidi‐Hydrocotyletea alatae, a new class of ephemeral communities in Western Australia*
Authors: Pignatti Erika , Pignatti Sandro
Published: May 2006

Abstract. In Western Australia ‐ a relatively arid portion of the continent ‐ wet environments are only occasionally vegetated, but well‐developed communities occur in winter‐wet habitats in sandplain depressions, along water courses and on rock (mostly granite) outcrops. These communities are composed of small‐sized annuals, mostly belonging to the Centrole‐pidaceae, Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Juncaginaceae, and Stylidiaceae. Multivariate analysis was carried out on 46 phyto‐sociological relevés; four associations are recognized with a distinct floristic composition and ecology. Species occurring in this vegetation are mostly therophytes (66%) and many are endemics; a new vegetation class Centrolepidi‐Hydrocotyletea alatae, endemic for Australia, is proposed and described.
A model for species‐area relationships in plant communities
Authors: Buys M. H. , Maritz J. S. , Boucher C. , Van Der Walt J.J.A.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. A model is proposed for the fitting of species‐area curves to data from the Stellenbosch region, South Africa. Basic assumptions of the model are finiteness of the number of species in a finite area, and random distribution of plant species over the region. The model involves a distribution of densities of different species, and the parameters of this distribution are useful for describing and classifying communities. The data of the Stellenbosch region suggest that the assumptions of the model break down in areas greater than 500 m2.
Compensatory response of two dune annuals to simulated browsing and fruit predation
Authors: Gedge Kevin E. , Maun M. A.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Greenhouse and field studies were conducted to determine the effects of artificial fruit removal and clipping (simulated deer browsing) on components of reproduction of two indeterminate dune annuals: Cakile edentula var. lacustris (Bigel.) Hook and Corispermum hyssopifolium L. The results showed that both species were able to partially or completely compensate or even overcompensate for low to moderate levels of clipping or fruit removal only if the damage occurred in the early stages of fruit development. The indeterminate habit of growth of both species facilitated their compensatory ability. The removal of fruits and clipping of plants which mimick browsing by white tailed deer along Lake Huron resulted in a significant increase in their period of flowering and fruiting, especially in the early stages of fruit development. The plants compensated for fruit loss by increasing the number of fruits per plant. A delay in fruit removal or clipping to later stages of fruit maturation of both species drastically reduced reproduction. Similar experiments in the field revealed that, although the critical periods during which the plants were most susceptible were the same, the plants had lower compensatory ability. Fruit damage and clipping generally did not affect the seed mass of both species.
Plant strategies and secondary succession on Brittany heathlands after severe fire
Authors: Clement B. , Touffet J.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Plant succession on heathlands subjected to major fire disturbance and humus burn in 1976 was studied over twelve years following burning. Life history strategies of principal heathland species are described with reference to concepts outlined by Grime (1979) and Whittaker & Goodman (1979). Heathlands and closely related communities are characterised by dominance of speciestolerant of physical stress (‘S’ strategists) whereas species which colonise disturbed sites are closer to rude‐rals (‘R’ strategists). After severe burning three main successional patterns were identified. They depend on water and nutrient availability relative to temporal population dynamics. Recovery of heathland is often retarded due to monospecific dominance, e.g. of Polytrichum commune, Molinia caerulea and Betula pubescens. These patterns of secondary succession illustrate the inhibition model advanced by Connell & Slatyer (1977).
Directionality, convergence, and rate of change during early succession in the Inland Pampa, Argentina
Authors: Facelli José M. , D'Angela Evelina
Published: May 2006

Abstract. We tested the following hypotheses forthe first five years of a grassland succession: (a) community changes are mainly directional and related to time after disturbance ratherthanto environmental fluctuations; (b) rates of succession decrease over time, and (c) plant communities in different plots converge on a similar composition within five years of succession. We tested those hypotheses using a Principal Components Analysis applied to data from four successional plots established in successive y ears in a large cropland in the Inland Pampa, Argentina. Community changes were correlated to the age of the plots, and unrelated to rainfall variability, a major environmental variable in grasslands. Successional rates were constant over the five years, probably because of the continued dominance of different annuals; we conclude that successional rates depend on the life history of the dominant species rather than on any emergent community property. We found no evidence of convergence ordivergence; we concluded that the results of successional studies may depend on the temporal and spatial scale of observation.
Competition and centrifugal organization of plant communities: theory and tests
Authors: Wisheu Irene C. , Keddy Paul A.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The concept of centrifugal organization integrates community ecology's two main conceptual approaches: description of gradients and study of process. Centrifugal organization describes distributional patterns of species and vegetation types along standing crop gradients that are caused by different combinations of environmental constraints. Gradients radiate outwards from a single core habitat to many different peripheral habitats. The assumed mechanism is a competitive hierarchy where weaker competitors are restricted to the peripheral end of the gradient as a result of a trade‐off between competitive ability and tolerance limits. The benign ends of the gradients comprise a core habitat which is dominated by the same species. At the peripheral end of each axis, species with specific adaptations to particular sources of adversity occur.

In wetlands, the core habitat has low disturbance and high fertility, and is dominated by large leafy species capable of forming dense canopies. Peripheral habitats are formed by different kinds and combinations of infertility and disturbance and support distinctive floras. The centrifugal organization model therefore allows us to predict the distribution of particular organisms (rare species) and to predict how changes to the conditions creating peripheral habitats will alter community composition.
Causes and consequences of variation in competitive ability in plant communities
Authors: Aarssen L. W.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Several factors may define the cause and pattern of variation in competitive ability among individuals within a plant community. Variation may be a consequence of genetic or environmental variability. These two sources of variation may vary in their relative magnitudes. The relevant scale of genetic variation may occur at the individual genotype level or at the species level. The relevant scale of environmental variation may occur at the individual plant level or at the neighbourhood (or community) level. Relative competitive abilities may be effected by genotype‐environment interaction or by genotype‐genotype (or species‐species) interaction. The complex relationship among these factors reveals the mechanistic basis for establishing a clear distinction among five specific hypotheses for species coexistence and diversity that are all variations of the general hypothesis that competitive abilities do not differ sufficiently among coexisting species to cause any competitive exclusion at the community level. These hypotheses are compared in terms of the degree to which they are restricted by assumptions and supported by existing data, and in the extent to which they involve evolutionary consequences of competition.
Vegetation asymmetry in Hawaii under the trade wind regime
Authors: Noguchi Yasuo
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Interpretation of aerial photographs (1962–1965) revealed vegetation asymmetry on opposite valley slopes in the semi‐arid to semi‐humid zones of the island of Oahu. Field studies after 5 and 10 yr showed that this asymmetry is a transitional feature during recovery from disturbance (fire).

The types of asymmetry ranged from difference in vigour of shrub canopies to total difference in floristic composition. Slopes exposed to the trade winds are typically characterized by grassy vegetation and landslides, whereas on the protected part of the upper west‐facing slope immediately behind a ridge, vigorous shrubs and trees grow without any mechanical damage or deformation of crowns. This part of the slope is richer in species, including rare ones, than other parts. It is also characterized by the invasion of grasses from more exposed sites and the elongation of shrub canopies above the crest line.

Different levels of exposure to exceptionally strong trade winds and salt spray at different parts of slopes seem to allow different speeds of recovery and thus contrasting vegetation structure and species composition. The existence of many shrub seedlings on the exposed upper slope suggests that succession is taking place and the vegetation asymmetry seems at least structurally to be a transitional feature.
Tree regeneration after bamboo die‐back in Chinese Abies‐Betula forests
Authors: Taylor Alan H. , Zisheng Qin
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Gaps created by disturbance in the forest canopy are important sites for tree regeneration from seed but plants already established in gaps may slow gap‐filling. This study deals with consequences of bamboo die‐back for tree regeneration and the dynamics of Abies‐Betula forests in southwest China. Bamboo dominates the forest understory impeding tree regeneration when in its vegetative phase. Populations of tree seedlings were sampled in 1984–85 and 1990 in two sets of permanent plots where bamboo had died back in 1983.

Both Abies and Betula density increased after bamboo die‐back, Betula more so than Abies, especially in gaps. Before bamboo die‐back, seedlings were established on raised surfaces such as logs but afterwards seedlings became common on the forest floor. This reduced the intensity of clumping of seedling populations between 1984 and 1990. A tree by tree replacement model predicts an increase in Abies and a decrease in Betula after bamboo die‐back. Life histories of tree species, gap characteristics, and the bamboo growth cycle (mature/die‐back/building) interact to promote fluctuating dominance of Abies and Betula in old‐growth forests.
Effects of mollusc grazing on the development of grassland species
Authors: Silva Oliveira , Teresa Maria
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The effects of grazing by the molluscs Helix aspersa and Deroceros reticulatus on six plant species of early successional plant communities was studied. Mixtures of Hypochoeris radicata, Plantago lanceolata, Plantago major, Ranunculus acris and Lolium perenne were grown from seed and subjected to grazing. Percentage cover and total yield were determined for grazed and ungrazed mixtures. Grazing had a significant effect on four out of the five species and the differences between the two mollusc species were significant for four species.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Young Kenneth R.
Published: May 2006

Book reviewed in this issue.

Gentry, A. H. (ed.) Four Neotropical Rain Forests. xiii+627 pp. Yale University Press, New Haven. ISBN 0–300–04722–3. Price: USD 57.50.
The calcifuge behaviour of Visearía vulgarís
Authors: Tyler Germund , Olsson Pal Axel
Published: May 2006

Soil factors responsible for the inability of Visearía vulgaris to colonize or survive on calcareous soils in Scandinavia were studied using experiments with plant establishment from seeds and re‐establishment of mature plants, in soils of naturally differing or artificially varied chemical properties. Limestone soil proved less suitable for re‐establishment of mature plants, and establishment from seeds was not possible in this soil. The plants grown on limestone had a very low phosphorus content and displayed deficiency symptoms. Acid leptite soil and soil from the A‐horizon of a dystric cambisol were suitable for plant establishment from seeds and re‐establishment of adult individuals, respectively. However, growth increased significantly when pH‐KCl was raised to 7.6 by adding CaC03. Establishment from seeds was successful in the Archaean and Ordovician limestone soils only when CaHP04 was added. The calcifuge behaviour of Visearía vulgaris is not due to negative effects of a high pH or a high Ca concentration in the soil. Inability to utilize the native phosphorus of such soils is the most evident explanation.
Allosyncarpia‐dominated rain forest in monsoonal northern Australia
Authors: Russell‐Smith J. , Lucas D.E. , Brock J. , Bowman D. M. J. S.
Published: May 2006

Following recent classifications of rain forest vegetation in northern Australia this paper examines the biogeo‐graphical status and condition of a rain forest type endemic to that region, dominated by the sclerophyllAllosyncarpia ternata (Myrtaceae).These forests are restricted to the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory, which includes Kakadu National Park. They cover an area of 1138 km2, or 41 % of all rain forest in northern and northwestern Australia. DCA of floristic data from 140 sites illustrates thatAllosyncarpiaforests occupy a range of sandstone‐derived substrates, from moist valley sediments to steep, freely draining, rocky sites. DCA of floristic transect data illustrates thatAllosyncarpiais by far the dominant canopy species over this topographic‐moisture sequence, but especially on seasonally dry substrates where it provides over 80 % basal area and effectively the entire canopy. DCA of floristic quadrat data from a floristi‐cally singular site illustrates major death of the fire‐sensitive gymnospermCallitris intratropica, and, to a lesser extent,Allosyncarpiaitself, on the forest‐savanna boundary.

Biogeographical implications arising from the Gondwanic distributions ofAllosyncarpiaand its close relatives,Arillas‐trum(New Caledonia),Eucalyptopsis(eastern Malesia), and an as yet undescribed taxon (eastern Australia), suggest that taxa ancestral to this group were extensive in the late Cretaceous. Their current restriction is in marked contrast to the success of their near relatives, the eucalypts. Given the tolerance ofAllosyncarpiato a wide range of substrate moisture conditions in the present day, it is argued that fire regulates patch margins of this forest type. Although tolerant of light fires, canopy trees at patch margins are susceptible under a regime of frequent, intense late dry‐season fires, such as are prevalent in Arnhem Land today. For effective conservation of fire‐sensitive communities in this floristically significant region, greater attention must be given to management and monitoring of the fire regime.
Diversity patterns of wet meadows along geochemical gradients in central Spain
Authors: Rey Benayas Jose M. , Scheiner Samuel M.
Published: May 2006

Four measures of biodiversity (species number per site, total species number, mean similarity and mosaic diversity) and their relationships with soil chemical composition were studied in vascular plant communities in groundwater discharge ecosystems of central Spain. Species richness decreased with increasing salinity, alkalinity and halite concentration. Species richness was apparently controlled more by soil toxicity than by soil nutrient levels, although a positive correlation of Ca2+ with species richness was found after accounting for the effects of toxic compounds. All relationships were strictly monotonic. Six community types were identified based on their soil chemical characteristics: glycophyte, subglycophyte, tolerant, subalkalinophyte, alkalinophyte, and halocalcicole communities. Within community types, species richness showed very few significant relationships with soil characteristics. Mean species richness was lowest in the environmentally stressful communities. Total species richness was greatest in the ecotonal community type. Mean similarity, a measure of among‐community diversity, and mosaic diversity, a measure of landscape complexity, differed among community types. Mean similarity was smaller (higher diversity) in species‐poor community types, while mosaic diversity was greatest (greater complexity) in species‐rich community types. The halocalcicole community type was richest in rare species.
Vegetation responses to wildfire in native versus exotic Arizona grassland
Authors: Bock J. H. , Bock C. E.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Grass and herb cover, and woody plant densities were measured on 25 native and 25 exotic grassland plots in southeastern Arizona between 1984 and 1990. At least 40 yr previously, the exotic plots had been seeded with two species of lovegrasses (Eragrostis spp.) native to southern Africa. A 1987 wildfire burned 11 native and 11 exotic plots. The fire reduced cover of both native and African grasses for two post‐fire growing seasons. Herb cover as a whole increased after the fire for 2 yr, although there were important differences among species. One of two dominant shrubs (Haplopappus tenuisectus) was killed by the fire, while the other (Baccharis pteronioides) was little affected. Mesquite trees (Prosopis juliflora) were killed to the ground by the fire, but 62 of 66 trees had re‐sprouted to an average 48% of pre‐burn height by 1990. Native and exotic grasses appeared equally tolerant of fire, probably because both evolved in fire‐type ecosystems. There was no evidence that fire can be used to permanently restore the diverse native flora to species‐poor plantations of the South African exotics.