CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 479 



only end sought. In surveying any district, moorland, woodland, or 

 wheatland, extensive notes are taken of the nature of the plant-associa- 

 tions and the various conditions under which they exist. In order that 

 our conclusions may be sounder, excursions are taken at all times of 

 the year. Notes taken in one district are compared with those taken 

 in another, and similar one. Thus a general list of plants representative of 

 the association or area is finally arrived at. In a similar way are built 

 up the lists of plants for all associations, and information obtained con- 

 cerning their biological conditions. 



It will readily be seen that by our methods the plant-species inhabiting 

 a district are arranged in the associations as they are actually found, and 

 not, as is almost invariably the case in local floras, in the groupings of the 

 Natural Orders. In certain ways this alternative point of view is very 

 advantageous, alike to the beginner whom it is sought to interest in 

 Nature study as to the maturer naturalist, who can find in the solution of 

 oecological problems motive for endless study and enjoyment. There is a 

 danger of thinking that the robbing a countryside of its rarest plants, to 

 be carried home, dried, labelled, and buried in sheets of paper, is the 

 beginning and end of botany. The present method puts no premium on 

 this ; the commoner plants are the most observed, and yet there is a place 

 in our scheme for the rarest. By regarding the trees, shrubs, flowers, 

 grasses, mosses, and moulds as individuals of one community, dependent in 

 a variety of ways upon one another, rather than as items meet to be 

 labelled and put into compartments, one is led to study the biology of the 

 vegetable kingdom, to use the microscope, and through it to see visions of 

 a thousand problems, some answered, many awaiting answer. And yet 

 the systematic side of the science is not obscured. 



The areas recently studied by us — the hill regions in Scotland and the 

 heath of England — are especially suited for testing the scheme. They 

 present all varieties of conditions, geologic and other. The results of the 

 surveys are now published, and we wish that similar attempts may be made, 

 either by societies or by individuals, to bring the whole country under a 

 vegetation-survey. It may be started at any season of the year and on 

 any area, no matter how small. A wood of a few acres, month by month, 

 each square yard, each species of plant, can be studied with every degree 

 of minuteness, and yet, to a true naturalist, without wasting a minute. 



It would have been foolish on my part to have attempted more than a 

 running glance at the investigation. The chief points can be grasped 

 during a study of the published maps ; if these are not sufliciently clear 

 to the reader, an attempt on some new area within easy reach of his 

 home will do more than anything else to clear up the idea.' 



The Chairman : This is a communication eminently fitted for this 

 Conference to discuss. It is just the kind of subject that Delegates should 

 bring before their respective societies. 



Mr. J. Hopkinson (Hertfordshire Natural History Society) : It appears' 



' See iSinith, Rolert (1900), Botanical Survey of Scotland. 

 I. Edinburgh District. II. Northern Perthshire. 



Smith, W. e., Moss, C, E., and Rankin, W. 31. (1903), Sotanical 

 Survey of England. 



1. Leeds and Halifax (Smith and Moss). 

 II. Skipton and Harrogate (Smith and Rankin). 



