CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 477 



we seem to have had a very good discussion, and I hope you will continue 

 it in your several societies. In approaching your winter sessions bring 

 this before the standing committees, and you will be able to do a great 

 deal of good. 



The Chairman then read the following resolution, which, he said, had 

 been passed by every Section that morning : ' That, as urged by the 

 President in his address, it is desirable that scientific workers and persons 

 interested in science be so organised that they may exert permanent in- 

 fluence on public opinion, in order more effectively to carry out the third 

 object of this Association, originally laid down by its founders, viz. " To 

 obtain a more general attention to the objects of science and the removal 

 of any disadvantages of a public kind which impede its progress," and that 

 the Council be asked to take steps to promote such organisation.' 



The motion was then put from the Chair and carried unanimously. 



Mr. J. Hopkinson (Hertfordshire Natural History Society) : I should 

 like to refer to a practical matter connected with this resolution. To 

 make it more widely known the delegates should be asked not only to 

 bring this before their Societies, but to see that it is printed in the 

 proceedings or transactions of their Societies. I hope this will be an 

 effective way of bringing this resolution before the notice of the 25,000 

 members represented by the Corresponding Societies Committee. 



Mr. W. M. Rankin then read the following Paper : 



The Methods and Hesuhs of a Botanical Survey of Counties. 

 By W. MuNN Rankin, B.Sc. (Bond.) 



During the current year two papers dealing with the Distribution of 

 Vegetation in the West Priding of Yorkshire have been published. 

 These constitute the first instalment of a Botanical Survey of England 

 and Wales. The late Robert Smith, of Dundee, similarly issued two 

 maps dealing with the Edinburgh District and North Perthshire ; a 

 third, treating Forfar and Fife, will be published early. Surveys of areas 

 in Westmorland and Somerset are in an advanced state. In all, the 

 survey of over 4,000 square miles has been completed. It will be seen, 

 therefore, that the project on which four or five of us have embarked is 

 no untried venture. On the contrary, the main ground-lines of the 

 research have been established, the values of numerous factors have been 

 weighed, and the significance of a vast number of problems has been 

 grasped. The present time, following so soon on the completion of the 

 two Yorkshire areas, seems most opportune for endeavouring to interest 

 the great body of naturalists in our work, not only passively, but also 

 actively, so that throughout the kingdom the work may be carried on. 



Putting the matter simply, the chief object of the survey of vegetation 

 is to reduce to certain well-defined terms the vegetation of a county, and 

 then to examine the biological features of each such term. 



The moat unscientific observer on a visit to some district new to his ex- 

 perience, and, better, when forming a memory-picture of his own homeland, 

 states the scenery in more or less general terms of geology and botany. He 

 remarks the hills with their crags and glens covered with heather or 

 grass, the valley-slopes strewn with rock debris and thin woods, the broad 

 alluvial river-' bottoms,' in which stand extensive park woods, or the 

 gently undulating plains, rich with cereals, luxuriant hedgerows and 



