Cleveland County herald., 1921-02-10
14-YEAR TESTS
 OF PLANT LIFE
Reveal That Wild Flora Do Not Always Grow in Most
 CongeniaI Habitat.
ENVIRONMENT IS CHANGED
Flowers Taken From Mountain Tops Grow Much More Luxurantly and Produce More Leaves, Flowers
 and Fruit at Sea Level.

Chicago.-At lecture given before an assemblage of geographers and biologists representing several socie- ties, Dr. D. T. MacDougal. director of the Botanical research department of the Carnegie institution at Washing ton, described the results of a series of experiments extending over four teen years and embracing 139 species of plants, the experiments tending to show that the wild plant is not al- ways found in the environment most suited to 1t.
 "A great many people think this" said Dr. MacDougal, but it has been found to be absolutely false"
 With stations established at four different attitudes. 5000 feet, 5,200 feet, 2.300 feet and at sea level, plants have been transferred from one place to another, and the results of the cul- tural experiments of fourteen years have now been compiled.
 Grow More Luxurianty.
 In these experiments plants from the mountain tops, some from height of close to one and one-half miles above sea level, were found to grow much more luxuriantly, producing more leaves, flowers and fruits at sea level than they had in their native habitat. These plants were not cultivated, pro- tected or fostered in any way in their new situations. Once placed, they were to all intents and purposes wild flowers and had to fight their own bat ties and take chances as before.
 One hundred and thirty-nine plants were used in these experiments, em- braeing forms of such wide divergence as grasses, wild lilies and oak and wal nut trees, as we'll as cacti and other unusual plants.
 "While a plant may thrive well in it's new situation" said Dr. MacDou gal, it will sometimes display a be- havior quite at variance with that by which it is ordinarily known. Thus the common witchhazel, which is known to bloom in the vicinity of New York when the frosts come, when talk en to the equitable climate of the Pa NihS NOaSt iSNCltS tV thC HUI bioA VI summer-blooming habit. Other species show flower forms, fruits and leaves notably different from those previous ly displayed by them.
 Aquatic plants of the cress family were made to grow in soil on the mountain tops, where the roots formed f1nall radishes, like their relatives. The radish is cress. In other words, .fhese plants came back to the ances- tral habit of forming a radish.
 Interest to Botogists
 'The manner in which plants travel about the world or are distributed Is a problem of great interest to biOlo- gists. and in this experimental work particular attention was given to ob- taining evidence on some of the prob lens of dissemination or movement of plants across the face of the country"
 It was found that rabbits and TO- dents which inhabit the oak zone at the top of the mountain range acted very effectively as barrier to pre- vent cacti and other plants from mov- ing up or down the mountain slopes To verify this barrage zone was es- tablished and the plants protected in screened enclosures which kept off the little nibbling animals. The plants thrived and prospered and spread within the enclosed section. Out in the open, to either side of the bar rage zone, they rapidly disappeared, being eaten by the rabbits. This ex- -plained the mysterious sudden stop page of some of these plants-not alti- tude nor heat nor cold, but actual de- struction through being eaten. The animals were like fence.
 The coastal laboratory at Carmel by-the-Sea and the desert laboratory at Tucson, Ariz are two of the ex- perimental stations which were used in this work.