480 REPORT— 1903. 



to me that it is not merely the compilation of the flora of a county that 

 should be aimed at, but we should seek to get a general idea of its vegeta- 

 tion — which is a very different thing indeed. There are certain difficulties 

 in mapping I should like to see discussed before the suggestions are put 

 into print. 



Mr. T. W. Woodhead (Huddersfield) : This mapping system has come 

 to stay, and I would suggest that the local societies commence on the 

 6-inch scale. There is, naturally, a difficulty in dealing with the 1-inch 

 scale. The first difficulty of the beginner is to draw the line between the 

 region of wheat and oats ; but on the 6-inch scale the matter becomes 

 simpler, and can be adopted by local botanists with much greater success. 

 Tf a particular crop is growing in one field, it is easy to indicate it, and 

 then, when once started, there is a fascination, which will be carried on 

 from season to season, in building up the sclieme definitely. This can be 

 carried on in smaller areas on the 25-iiich scale, and if local societies 

 would devote their attention to this line of work they would find a 

 renewed interest. The picture of the flora on this plan will appeal to us 

 as it has never done before. 



Mr. Ewing (Glasgow) ; I have listed eleven counties in the "West of 

 Scotland, and when we have considered all the plants found in a county 

 we can fall back on listing them in this other way. 



Professor Kendall (Yorkshire Geological Society) : These two objects 

 are not incompatible, but there has been so much list-making that in the 

 minds of many people the collecting botanists arc put on much the same 

 level as the collector of postage -stamps or postcards. There are many 

 extremely interesting problems to be solved. We cannot say how this 

 will eventuate, or what important deductions may be drawn, but I can 

 say this, I have seen Dr. Smith and his brother come dowii a mountain 

 side with a botanical map, and, putting it alongside a geological map, the 

 two are almost identical. That shows how one science assists the other. 

 For example, there is a distinctive shape of a woodland — whether it is on 

 the Millstone Grit, where deep and narrow gorges are cut, or in the Coal 

 Measure country, where the rocks are not so durable, and where you have 

 woodlands of a luore expansive character. That is an illustration by the 

 way, but I think such a survey as this will, among other benefits, tell us 

 something of what is happening to our country from a climatic point of 

 view. There is a remarkable fact, to which Dr. Smith has called atten- 

 tion — that our Pennine hills were once well wooded. In peats at heights 

 of from 1,200 to 1,400 feet I have seen remains of large trees, but there 

 are no trees growing there now. We want to know why these trees 

 disappeared, and observations such as these may give us the answer, if 

 not in this, in the next generation. Our children will thank us for it. 

 It may be a climatic cause. What about reaflbrestation 1 We have 

 thousands and thousands of acres of land available, and we have an 

 unquestioned demand for timber. Can that demand be satisfied by any 

 well-considered scheme of reafforestation ? The answer must naturally 

 come in a large measure fro)n the botanist, and the man who works on 

 these lines will be able to tell us why these forests disappeared. I should 

 like to suggest another point of view, that of a sanitarian. We have com- 

 mittees on the investigation of town-atmospheres. What is the cause of 

 the destruction of vegetation by town-smoke ? In one district I found 

 that if the evergreens in my garden were to bear out their characters, it 

 was necessary to scrub the leaves so as to remove the sooti By the 



