720 REPOET— 1901. 



3. Methods and Objects of a Botanical Survey of Scotland. 

 By W. G. Smith, B.Sc, Ph.D., Leeds. 



The botanical survey now under consideration was initiated by Robert Smith, 

 of Dundee, and was drawn up in co-operation witli a survey of France on similar 

 lines, the project of Professor Ch. Hahault, of Montpellier. According to this 

 method the vegetation of any area is regarded as consisting of a collection of plant- 

 associations the distribution and extent of which are indicated on standard maps 

 by distinctive colours. Each association of plants is adapted to certain conditions 

 of food-supply, heat, light, moisture, &c., and one of the objects of the survey is to 

 obtain fuller information on these life-conditions of plants. 



Each plant-association consists of a variable number of species, •which may be 

 arranged thus : 



(fl) One or more dominant social fgregarious) species : these are used to name 

 the association, e.g., oak, beech, pine, heather, &c. 



Qj) Secondary social species struggling for dominance. 



(e) Dependent species protected by the dominant forms or more oi less de- 

 pendent on them for food, &:c. 



A feature of the survey is the collection of field-notes and lists of species in 

 order to amplify our knowledge of plant-associations and species included in each. 



In Scotland the following have been found to be the most suitable associations 

 for recording, and they are equally applicable to a botanical survey in progress in 

 various parts of England : — 



I. Maritime and littoral group of associations. 



II. Agrarian group. 



(rt) Cultivation : (1) with rotations including wheat — upper limits, 600 



to COO feet ; (2) without wheat — up to limits of cultivation, 1,000 to 



1,250 feet. 

 {b) Woods of deciduous trees: (1) mixed deciduous woods with beech, 



oak, &;c. — upper limits, 700 to 1,000 feet ; (2) oak woods without 



beech — upper limits, 1,000 feet. 



III. Sub-alpine group (1,000 to 2,000 feet). 



(rt) Woods: (1) Scots pine or mixed conifers — upper limits, 1,260 to 



1,800 feet; (2) larch woods— upper limits, 1,-300 to 1,800 feet; 



(3) birch woods — upper limits, 1,500 to 2,G00 feet. 

 (6) Hill pasture and moorland: (1) grass hill pasture associations; 



(2) heather associations ; (3) cotton-grass and heather associations on 



peat-bog. 



IV. Alpine group (2,000 to 4,000 feet). 



(1) Heather associations, up to 3,100 feet. 



(2) Bilberry {Vaccmium myrtillus) association, up to 3,600 feet, 



(3) Alpine pasture associations. 



(4) Alpine plateau with mosses, lichens, &c. 

 (•5) Alpine crags. 



4. Notes on Argentine Anthropo-geography. 

 By F. P. Moreno, Director of the La Flata Museum. 



The paper gives an account of the distribution of the extinct and existing 

 human races in the Argentine Eepublic. 



There are in Argentina the remains of men who lived before the continent 

 had acquired its present relief and contour. Ai'terwards these men, developing, 

 commenced their migrations, while another race appeared in the regions of the 

 West at the end of the Glacial epoch, and the ancient people were pushed to the 



