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NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
BOTANICAL SURVEY. 
In December, 1904, a meeting of four botanists—Dr. 
W. G. Smith and Messrs. C. E. Moss, A. G. Tansley, and T. W. 
Woodhead, was held in Leeds at the house of the former, to 
consider the formation of an Ecological Society. The outcome 
was the ‘Committee for the Survey and Study of British 
Vegetation.’ This Committee, restricted to about a dozen 
members, has done valuable pioneer work, and the results of 
their investigations have been recognized by and have in- 
fluenced the work of Ecologists both on the Continent and in 
America. The work in the main has consisted of primary 
surveys, and considerable portions of England and Scotland, 
also a part of Ireland have been surveyed. The work has also 
extended to more detailed and intensive studies of selected 
areas and the large amount of sound work accomplished re- 
flects great credit on the members; a valuable summary of 
it is contained in Tansley’s ‘ Types of British Vegetation.’ 
THE BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
After an active existence of less than nine years, and largely 
from demands for membership by a wide circle of botanists, 
the Committee has resolved itself into the ‘ British Ecological 
Society,’ founded in April last at a meeting held at University 
College, London. Many doubts have been expressed as to 
the wisdom of adding another to the long list of Scientific 
Societies. Certainly there is a limit to one’s time and means 
and there is a danger of withdrawing support from older 
institutions. In the opinion of many, a wiser course would 
have been to add an ecological section to one of the existing 
societies, ¢.g., the Linnean, but there are obvious difficulties 
to such a course. We can only hope that the new society will 
not only maintain its high reputation, but justify its formation 
by greatly extending its scope and usefulness. The fee for 
membership is {I Is. per annum; 7s. 6d. for Associates, and 
Natural History Societies and Field Clubs may become affili- 
ated by an annual subscription of one guinea. 
THE JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY. 
In anticipation of the formation of the British Ecological 
Society, the first part of the ‘ Journal of Ecology’ was issued 
on March tst of this year. The editor, well known to our readers 
by his work on Hepatics, is Dr. Frank Cavers. The aims of 
the journal are set forth by the President, Mr. A. G. Tansley, 
from which we learn that Foreign as well as British Ecology is 
included in its scope, and it is intended, by means of reviews 
and extracts to acquaint its readers with the main results 
recorded in the world’s ecological literature. Professor F.W. 
Oliver gives some interesting ‘ Remarks on Blakeney Point, 
1913 Aug, I. U 
