406 Flahault: Phytogeographic Nomenclature 



Shrubs and shrubbery with persistent leaves (garigues and 



maquis). 



Ericaceous shrubs (heather, etc.), etc. 



There are continuous groups of homogeneous associations 

 (geschlossene Formation) and interrupted groups of associations 



#< 



one another, 



dissociated, as the trees in the " pres-bois " of larches, the 

 thickets in the Mediterranean garigues, the brush wood in the 

 Brazilian campos, the tufts of grass on gravelly shores or on the 

 dunes of the sea coast. The vegetation may be so thinly scat- 

 tered that the name of the group of associations may be given it 

 by the substratum. 



In this way groups of plant associations could be distinguished 

 as of the dunes and beaches of the sea coast, of rocks, of moraines, 

 of the banks of streams and rivers, etc. These details may be 

 easily stated in an exact manner. 



Groups of associations may themselves be distributed into large 

 ecologic series based on the uniformity of the factors which 

 determine them, as proposed by M. Warming. There would be 

 series of hydrophilous, xerophilous, halophilous, mesophilous 

 groups of associations which would be designated simply by their 

 substantives: Hydrophytes, xerophytes, halophytes, mesophytes. 

 On this point phytogeographers have but to follow the excellent 

 principles laid down by Warming.* 



The great phytogeographic regions are characterized by a 

 peculiar vegetable landscape, by a type of vegetation which re- 

 flects a distinct result of the reaction of the climate on the plants. 

 Specific units assume the same appearance or a small num- 

 ber of distinct appearances; they resemble one another in as- 

 pect, height and form. The tree vegetations of temperate Europe, 



Jap 



ance. 



They belong to the same type of vegetation. The her- 

 baceous plants of the Steppe, however different they may be from 

 the specific point of view, have everywhere the same aspect ; the 

 tropical forest with its multiple heights of vegetation, its lianas, .its 

 epiphytes, its herbaceous carpet of infinite variety, still represents 

 wherever it is seen, the same type of vegetation. 



* Warming, Lehrbuch der oekol. Pflanzengeogr. , p. 114. 



