PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 



Believing that Dr. Braun-Blanquet's " Pflanzensoziologie " will long 

 serve as a milestone and guidepost on the road to an adequate knowl- 

 edge of vegetation, the translators have undertaken to make it more 

 easily available to the English-speaking world. They have already 

 proved its value as a textbook in the teaching of field botany and 

 ecology. 



In the preparation of the Enghsh edition one of them (Conard) has 

 had the greater part of the task of translating the German text, while 

 the editing and revising have been done mostly by the other (Fuller), 

 who has also inserted, with the approval of the author, some of the 

 results of American investigators. In certain portions of the text 

 the opinions of the author have prevailed rather than those of the 

 editors. 



In their work the editors have had the full cooperation of the 

 author, who has made many changes in the original and has added the 

 results of investigations that have been reported since the appearance 

 of the German edition. He has also approved the insertion of certain 

 topics not appearing in the earUer edition. The present book is, 

 therefore, not only a translation but also a revised and enlarged 

 edition of the original. 



The translators and editors are indebted to the author for permission 

 to translate his book and for his assistance in the revision of this 

 English edition; to Dr. Frank Thone of Science Service, who read the 

 entire manuscript; to Prof. Hans Jenny of the University of Missouri 

 and to Prof. Paul Emerson of Iowa State College, who read the 

 chapters on soils; to Dr. Clare F. Cox, who read portions of the 

 manuscript; and to other friends who have assisted in various ways. 

 To all of these they tender their sincere thanks. They will welcome 

 criticisms, corrections, and suggestions by which a second edition may 

 become better than the present one. 



George D. Fuller. 

 Henry S. Conard. 

 The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 

 Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, 



July, 1932, 



