2 PLANT SOCIOLOGY 



1. The organization or structure of the community; the investigation of the 

 composition of plant communities. 



2. Synecology: the study of the dependence of plant communities upon one 

 another and upon the environment. 



3. Syngenetics (development of communities, closely related to synecology): 

 the discovery of the laws of the rise, development, and decline of plant communities. 



4. Synchorology (geographic distribution of communities): the investigation 

 of the arrangement of the plant communities in space, their occurrence and 

 distribution. 



5. Sociological classification (systematics) : the delimitation of the social 

 units, their grouping into higher units, and the systematic arrangement of these 

 units. This grows out of the preceding as a synthesis of the first four problems. 



The first problem — the investigation of the composition of com- 

 munities — stands at present at the focus of phytosociological effort. 

 It furnishes the indispensable foundation for an unbiased treatment of 

 all the other partial problems. On the other hand, classification, like 

 every natural systematization, has as its prerequisite the most accurate 

 possible knowledge of all the partial problems. From the nature of the 

 case, therefore, this part of sociological science, at present lacking 

 the necessary broad basis, is quite undeveloped. 



