Sniilli : Hotanical Survey for Lonil A'd/itnilisfs' Socic/ies. j 



The scheme which we now propose is essentialh' this : to 

 study plant-associations. These are the parts whicli tog'ether 

 make up the veg'etation, but at the present time there is a 

 i^eneral ignorance about the composition of these essential 

 elements. In setting this as the work of local botanists, it is 

 not forgotten that to them botany is a hobby taken up during- 

 a leisure more or less limited, and it cannot be expected that 

 they can give the time necessary for the full and detailed studies 

 which a complete study of vegetation entails. The making oi 

 vegetation maps, such as attempted in Yorkshire and elsewhere, 

 should for the present be taken up only by those whose mode of 

 life allows of a long" and careful training- in botany in all its 

 aspects, including some knowledge of allied branches of science. 

 A course similar to what we now propose for the preparation of 

 a vegetation survey has been followed in compiling the existing- 

 floras. The local worker who carefully observed and recorded 

 the species of a district has laid the foundation for the prepara- 

 tion of a parish or county Flora ; the sum oi those local Floras 

 is that of the whole country. 



The suggestion that local societies and individual workers 

 should provide records of plant-associations introduces two 

 questions: (i) What is a plant-association? (2) How are the 

 records to be made ? 



On a recent occasion (British Association, Glasgow, 1901) 

 we dealt with the first question thus: — 'The plant-association 

 may be defined as a community or society of plants li\ing- 

 together and adapted to certain conditions of environment. In 

 each association there are — (i) one or more dominant social 

 forms, {2) secondary or sub-dominant forms struggling for 

 dominance, (3) dependent species. For example, a natural 

 \\ood consisting entirely of oak trees has one dominant form — 

 the oak — whose presence is determined by the prevalent climatic, 

 soil, and other conditions, while its size and gregarious nature 

 g'ive it dominance ; in this wood there may be other trees or 

 shrubs (e.g., birch, mountain ash, or hazel), more or less 

 isolated, but which, given the opportunity by removal of the 

 oak, will become dominant forms ; the motley carpet of the oak 

 wood is made up of many species dependent on the larg-er forms 

 for shelter and shade, or living as epiphytes, parasites, and 

 humus saprophytes, and including not only flowering- plants, but 

 ferns, mosses, lichens, and fungi. The association is thus a 

 mixed community with complex relationships, its members 

 struggling for existence and dominance, but it is a coherent 



190J January 3. 



