3i8 Notes and Coniments. 



panied by a sketch map) by Messrs. B. H. Bentley, E. Snel- 

 grove, T. Gibbs, and M. H. Stiles, occupies 43 pages. ' Zoology,' 

 by Messrs. A. Denny, C. J. Patten, P. E. Allen, W. D. Roebuck, 

 L. S. Brady, C. J. Hardy, E. G. Bayford, G. S. Brady, T. J. 

 Evans, J. M. Brown and H. Moore is described in 55 pages. 

 This last article contrasts remarkably with the article on the 

 natural history of the district, in the 1879 handbook, which 

 ignored living animals, and was purely palseontological. In all 

 respects, except two, the new handbook shows a great 

 superiority to its predecessor. Both books are without an 

 index, and the local places of interest, so well described in the 

 earlier volume, are now relegated to a separate Excursions- 

 Guide. 



THE WOODLANDS OF ENGLAND. 



A paper which appears in a recent number of the ' New 

 Phytologist (pp. 113-149) on the above subject, shows that 

 very substantial progress has been made towards a better 

 appreciation of the vegetation of this country by the Central 

 Committee for the Survey and Study of British Vegetation. 

 This is the lirst time that a really satisfactory attempt has been 

 made to give a bird's-eye view of English Woodlands as a whole, 

 and to reduce these diverse and complicated associations into 

 something like order. The paper is an elaboration of the one 

 read by Mr. Tansley at the Dublin meeting of the British 

 Association in 1908, with the further assistance of Dr. C. E. 

 Moss and Mr. W. M. Rankin. 



After discussing the status of Briish Woodlands, in which 

 six types are distinguished, from virgin forest to recent planta- 

 tions — and the relations of climate and soil, they deal very 

 fully with the classification of English Woodlands. Three main 

 series are recognised : — 



(l) the alder- willow series. 



This is a lowland type occurring on very wet soils, and is 

 •characteristic of low-lying alluvial districts as along the banks 

 of the slow streams of the New Forest, the remoter valleys and 

 lowland peat-moors of the North of England, and in the fens 

 of Norfolk. The woods of this series at present existing, 

 probably represent merely fragments of a once extensive 

 ■development, by now greatly reduced in consequence of drainage 

 and culti\'ation. At least two plant associations occur in it. 

 e.g., the Carrs of Norfolk fed by alkaline and calcareous waters 



Naturalist, 



