26 THE SCOTTISH BOTANICAL REVIEW 
and has within the last year or two published several important 
communications bearing on cecological problems. 
Regarding the introduction and cultivation of new plants of 
economic value, we find that this branch of economic botany has 
not received as much consideration and thought as its importance 
deserves. No doubt the world has been searched for plants of value 
in horticulture, and many trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants of 
great ornamental value have been introduced, but no_ properly 
organised and systematic endeavour has been made to introduce 
and test new species of economic rather than of ornamental impor- 
tance. Several of our large seed firms and many private individuals 
have rendered valuable service to the nation by the production of 
new and improved varieties of plants already in cultivation, and the 
recent science of Genetics is certain in the near future to enable 
man to produce with greater rapidity and certainty plants of improved 
quality. It is, however, not only necessary to discover or to artifici- 
ally produce new varieties: we must go further, and test the suita- 
bility of these new species and varieties under varying cecological 
conditions. Owing to the endless modification in soil and climate, 
it is not possible to formulate definite rules, and to say whether a 
variety which is a success in one place will do equally well in 
another. Still, by making an cecological study of a plant in its 
native habitat, we can form a very good opinion of how it will 
behave when introduced into new conditions. A knowledge of a 
plant’s cecological characteristics enables us to select those conditions 
of locality and environment which are most likely to supply its 
requirements. At the same time it is only by actual trial or ex- 
periment that such questions can be definitely settled. We must 
apply to nature direct for our information, and ask such questions by 
means of experiment, and note the reply she gives. I wish here to 
emphasise the fact that experiments based on scientific principles 
are likely to yield better and more valuable results than those 
conducted on blind trial and error, or rule of thumb methods. It 
is therefore essential that such trials should be carried out under 
expert supervision. It may be that some slight error in cultivation 
leads to failure; hence it is necessary to know in each case when 
failure occurs why it occurs, and, having found the cause, to try if 
anything can be done to ameliorate or modify the conditions to suit 
the plant. Otherwise, through some initial error or failure to select 
the proper cultural method, a plant might be lost which would 
otherwise have proved a valuable addition to the economic flora. 
It is in connection with such problems that the study of plant 
cecology will prove of great economic importance. In itself the 
study of plant cecology, or the geographical distribution of plants on 
a physiological basis, is of the highest scientific value ; and when we 
can apply its results in a practical manner to the cultivation of plants, 
it assumes an economic value of equal merit. 
As an illustrative example, let us for a moment consider Dr. 
Kienitz’s important investigations into the shapes and types of the 
