FOREWORD. | 
PWHIS pamphlet claims no merit, except that it is a 
practical study—a sign-post on the way to a flora. It 
shows topographically what information has been 
«> collected, up to date, by the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ 
Union in working out the distribution of our plants. It is an 
analysis, as near as I can approximate, of some 500,000 
observations. The species in every case are followed by the 
numbers of the artificial divistons of the county accepted by the 
Union in 1895. As the Watsonian vice-counties were preserved 
intact in further sub-dividing the county, a glance at the figures 
shows whether a plant is recorded for either or both vice- 
counties. When this pamphlet is used with the map and parish 
list with division numbers, issued by the Union in 1895, no 
difficulty should be found in allocating records to their right 
divisions. ‘The map with the list is still on sale, and can be 
obtained from Mr. A. Smith, F..s., the County Museum, 
Lincoln. © 
If plant ecology may be defined as the study of the balance 
of nature, or the reciprocal relation of plants to their environ- 
ment, the vast mass of rock-soil and other notes, collected by 
many workers and by the Union since 1893, finds no place here. 
It is impossible to show, even in the barest outline, my own 
special work. All such material must wait till the last 18 soils, 
out of the 50 found on the drift maps of this county—and this 
number does not include combinations—have been worked out 
on the same full lines as those that have been already dealt with. 
I have honestly endeavoured to give each lover of our 
plants credit for the work he or she has done in making first 
