[from the text] Foresters and ecologists are manifesting increasing interest in virgin forests. They realize that a climax forest is more than an object for passing admiration; it is the product of long centuries of development on the part of nature, and is worthy of serious study. The climax forest affords an integrated picture of the cumulative effect of the factors of site on vegetational development. The most intimate influences of the edaphic and climatic factors upon the organic community, and the coincident equally important influences of the organic community upon the environmental factors, are faithfully recorded in the climatic climax forest.