CHAPTEK XXXIV 



PLANT ASSOCIATIONS 



THE late Kobert Smith was one of the first in this country to 

 recognise that the study of plants in the field should be something 

 else than the mere " determination of their names and their places 

 in the system of classification." While fully acknowledging the 

 value of the latter work, he felt that it could be as well done in a 

 garden or even with a well mounted herbarium, where an abundance 

 of plants is brought together for comparison. In a paper* which 

 was in type at the time of his death, he dealt with what we may call 

 the out-door nature-study side of the question, and gave an account 

 of his methods in the hope that they might be applied more widely 

 in the early education of children. Throughout this book we have 

 suggested the point of view from which plants should be approached 

 in nature-study, and we are here interested more particularly in plant 

 associations. The following quotation from the paper already alluded 

 to may be given : 



"From the outset of the study, plants in nature are to be dis- 

 tinguished from those in a ' tidy ' garden, which have been planted 

 quite apart from each other, and often without regard to their natural 

 requirements. In nature, plants are as a rule closely packed together, 

 sometimes dependent upon one another, but more often competing 



* " Home Lore : Plant Associations and their Distribution." The Journal of School 

 Geography, October 1900, pages 287-295. 



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