CHAPTER II 
PLANT ASSOCIATIONS 
‘*It is perhaps also proper to take into account the situation in 
which each plant naturally grows or does not grow. For this is 
an important distinction, and specially characteristic of plants, 
because they are united to the ground and not free from it like 
animals.’’—THEOPHRASTUS : Enquiry into Plants, I. iv. 
BEFORE Setting about discussing the various types 
of vegetation which our own country presents, it will 
be well to have a general idea of the extent to which 
the main types are developed, and of the amount to 
which agriculture has interfered with the native 
flora. We have seen that the natural vegetation of 
the greater part of the British Isles is woodland: yet 
so profoundly has human industry altered the face 
of the country that woodland, natural or planted, 
occupies only about one-twentieth of the surface of 
England, rather less of Scotland and Wales, and 
about one-seventieth of Ireland. Much of the former 
woodland is now represented by “ arable land,” which 
covers over one-third of England, and about half 
that proportion of the other parts of the British Isles. 
Permanent grassland, partly natural, partly replacing 
ancient woodland, bulks large in England and Wales, 
occupying about two-fifths of the whole country; in 
Scotland and Ireland the proportion is much less, but 
in those countries a large area is under moor, heath, 
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