Nov. 1909.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 57 
preliminary to more extensive studies, and as the memoirs 
are expressed in equivalent terms, a comparison of areas is 
possible. 
The analysis of the vegetation shows that throughout 
Britain the plant-covering consists of plant communities 
which recur in places widely apart, and under ecological 
conditions which appear on the whole to be similar, but 
fuller information is still needed. Types of vegetation have 
also been established which, although previously known to 
some extent, had no particularly conspicuous place in any 
existing literature. This is specially the case with wood- 
land associations, and the following types of semi-natural 
woods are now clearly defined:—Ash woods on limestone 
soils in Yorkshire and Somerset; beech woods of the Chalk 
of Southern England; the two types of oakwood—oak- 
hazel with Quercus pedunculata dominant on deep moist 
soils, and oak-birch with Q. sessiliflora dominant on dry 
shallow soils; and the birch wood so characteristic of 
the Highlands.' Amongst the moorland associations so 
established are Calluna heath, Calluna moor, and 
Eriophorum moor, all well-defined types. 
The synthetic treatment of the observations is now 
beginning to be evident. The earlier papers were naturally 
reticent in expressing broad conclusions, because the areas 
surveyed were limited, but with wider information it is 
now becoming safe to draw up conclusions. The influence 
of man, whether as forester or disforester, as shepherd, 
farmer, or game preserver, has left its mark over great 
tracts of our native vegetation, and to British workers 
(as indeed to workers in ecology everywhere) it is obvious 
that no scheme of botanical survey can ignore man as 
a biological factor of the environment. It is therefore 
necessary to examine how man has altered a more primitive 
vegetation. How far the botanical survey method. has 
traced the influence of man is seen in the “ Woodlands of 
England,” and there it is shown that although few truly 
natural woods exist, yet it is possible to arrange all but 
1 «The Woodlands of England,” by Moss, Rankin, and Tansley, 1910, 
gives details of these woodland associations ; it may be obtained in 
pamphlet form (86 pp.; price Is. Id. post free) from Secretary, Com- 
mittee for British Vegetation, 13 George Square, Edinburgh. 
