INTRODUCTION 



By V. E. Shelford 



Biology has been characterized by 

 waves of interest in special fields cor- 

 responding to fads and similar phe- 

 nomena in himian activity generally. 

 One of these fields of special interest 

 is, or has been, evolution. One can 

 hardly help agreeing with writers who 

 state that it retarded the progress of 

 biology (botany and zoology). This 

 was due to the fact that it happened 

 to turn attention to types of work that 

 could be done in the museum and in the 

 laboratory. The doctrine of the sur- 

 vival of the fittest was accepted with 

 none but the crudest ideas of what 

 constitutes fitness. Most backward of 

 all was the knowledge of the environ- 

 ment. This, together with the ease 

 with which morphological features could 

 be fitted into the doctrines set forth 

 by Darwin, led to a period of empirical 

 speculation concerning adaptation, 

 coloration, mimicry, etc., which con- 

 tributed so little of scientific value 

 that much of it will be quite generally 

 ignored or forgotten in the near future. 



In connection with this work observa- 

 tions which would show the function 

 or fitness of the parts of features specu- 

 lated about, were rare if not wanting. 

 The uses of the structures or colors were 

 often entirely assumed. We perhaps 

 know less about fitness than any other 

 biological subject. The "survival of 

 the fittest" as usually employed means 

 merely the survival of the survivors. 

 There can be no adequate knowledge of 

 fitness to environment without knowl- 

 edge of environment. 



Knowledge of habitats and the rela- 

 tions of organisms to them cannot be 

 said to have seriously reached the ears 

 or constituted a part of the training of 

 more than a few of those engaged in the 



older lines of botany and zoology. 

 Studies of genetics, evolution, physi- 

 ology, embryology, cytology, parasi- 

 tology and entomology still proceed 

 largely or at least far too often without 

 reference to the habitat relations of 

 the organisms studied. 



Warming, who studied the plants of 

 the sanddunes of Denmark, discovered 

 orderly sequences and established the 

 fact that habitats and environment 

 may be interpreted by i)utting the 

 results of his studies into scientific 

 order. He thus answered the epithet 

 of a famous contemporary zoologist 

 who closed a discussion of habitats with 

 the words "developing hodge podge." 

 Modern ecology has shown that the 

 environment is orderly, proceeding in 

 a particular direction for long periods. 

 One of its outstanding and original 

 features is the study and orderly inter- 

 pretation of the habitats of organisms 

 and the organisms themselves. Further 

 experience has demonstrated what 

 Warming indicated: That knowledge 

 of habitats can be organized into science. 



A branch of biological science which 

 obtains its inspiration in the natural 

 order in original habitats must depend 

 upon the preservation of natural areas 

 for the solution of many i)roblems. 



It was the conviction of many mem- 

 bers of the Ecological Society soon 

 after its organization, that the society 

 should take steps to make available 

 for study as much of the original biota 

 of North America, as possible. An 

 inventory of available areas and the 

 extent to which they are modified is 

 naturally one of the early steps in the 

 preservation of suitable areas for eco- 

 logical study. 



