CHAPTER III 



ECOLOGY AND ITS IMPORTANCE 



IT is a noticeable fact that the chief men of 

 eminence who are now Darwinians of to-day 

 are zoologists, and if Dr Wallace, Sir E. R. 

 Lankester, Mr G. A. Reid, and Mr Thomson 

 may be regarded as leaders, it is at least un- 

 fortunate that they do not appear to be well 

 posted in the latest conclusions of plant ecology. 

 At all events they do not allude to it ; for 

 equally eminent botanists take precisely opposite 

 views. Plant ecology is now well established 

 on the Continent and in America, and especially 

 in the north of England and Scotland ; but as 

 far as Dr Wallace's paper, Mr Thomson's and 

 Mr Reid's books are concerned, the conclusions 

 of ecologists are totally ignored. 



The great advantage of ecology is that the 

 botanist, as the word explains, " studies " plants 

 " at home," i.e., as they grow in nature ; and 

 they do not, nor have any need to theorise 

 upon the origin of species at all. They no longer 

 study plant-structures with the view of detecting 



agreements and differences for the purpose of 



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