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A description is given of a compact, portable instrument suitable for measuring water temperature and light intensity in studies of lake pr marine ecology

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(1) Candida albicans has been shown to be an inhabitant of the alimentary tract of man and 7 other mammals in New Zealand.
(2) Although the yeast was present in the mouths of up to 40% human subjects, it was not isolated from the general skin surface of 278 children aged 2 to 13 years.
(3) Skin carriage of Candida albicans was demonstrated in only 1.4% of 72 students aged 17 to 22 years while the yeast was recovered from 27.0% of geriatic subjects aged more than 60 years. The difference in incidence is statistically significant.

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The humus forms of soil profiles have been defined as the group of A horizons in which organic matter is concentrated (Barratt 1964). They are generally the first parts of soil profiles to respond to changes in soil-forming factors and they are particularly worthy of study in the temperate grasslands of Great Britain and New Zealand where grasslands have largely developed on former forest soils.

A detailed list is given of the species of macrolichens collected from the western slopes of the Humboldt Mountains, Fiordland. The composition and possible importance is discussed of "sub-regional" lichen communities.

Values for frequency and percentage dominance are given for 105 species in alpine tussock grassland from six sites located between timber line at about 1,000 m. and the upper limit of closed vegetation at about 1,640 m. on the western slope of the Humboldt Mountains in northern Fiordland. On the basis of physiognomy, three distinct communities can be recognised: (1) A low alpine scrub dominated by the tall tussock Chionochloa flavescens and subalpine shrubs, particularly Dracophyllum uniflorum, extending for about 75 m.

The technique used at Otago for the quantitative description of bryophyte-dominated communities, mainly in forests is: (a) to estimate the frequency of ground species in dm² quadrats arranged in grids of 25, laid out semi-systematically on the ground, total cover of all plants in the ground layer being estimated at the same time; (b) to estimate the cover of epiphytes on the bottom 2 m. of trees in an objectively drawn sample, using visual estimates of abundance and later converting these to cover values using personal conversion factors.

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In ecological research one is often faced with analyzing quantitative data. A dilemma that frequently arises is that, in applying many of the existing methods of statistical analysis, we have to assume that certain variables are statistically independent even though we know from biological or physical considerations that they must interact. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint readers with the relatively new technique of path analysis which seems to have great potential. This is easiest done' by relating path analysis to multiple regression analysis.