298 Boliuiy at iJw Ih-UisJi Associii/ion. 



whole of the district. In the afternoon Dr. T. VV. Woodliead 

 opened with an account of ' Kcoloj^ical Work in Switzerland.' 

 Everyone was surprised at the extent and ran^je of the work 

 carried on there, and an opportunity was »^iven to the members 

 of examining- much of this in the largfe collection of literature, 

 maps, photog^raphs, etc., exhibited in illustration of the paper. 

 In stronj^ contrast to similar work in Kns^land, these studies 

 are greatly encouraged by government grants, and bv the 

 departments of Ag^riculture and Forestry. 



Mr. C. E. Moss dealt with ' Succession of Plant Formations 

 in Britain.' He described the plant formations of sand dunes, 

 muddy salt marshes, lowland and upland peat moors, and 

 primitive woodland. He concluded that plant associations are 

 determined much more by edaphic than by climatic factors. 

 Of the edaphic factors the occurrence of humus and humous 

 acids is one which is highly important and deserving more 

 attention. An open association is usually dominated by one 

 plant, and the number of other species is small. An inter- 

 mediate association either consists of a number of smaller 

 vegetation units (plant societies), as in the case of the dune 

 marsh association, or is dominated by several plants, each of 

 which possesses the same plant form as in the case of the reed 

 swamp. The number of species in an intermediate plant associa- 

 tion is often very large. A closed association is again dominated 

 by one plant, and the number of species in the association is 

 small. The g:round is not fully occupied by plants in an open 

 association, whereas in a closed association plants cover all the 

 available ground. Intermediate associations pass gradually 

 into each other, but the extremes are easy to differentiate. 

 Prof. T. Johnson gave an account of ' Corn Smuts and their 

 Propagation,' and Mr. W. Wilson referred to ' Acclimatised 

 Plants ' in Scotland. 



Friday was given up to the Pateobotanists, and they had 

 much of interest to tell us. Dr. Scott was to deal with ' Some 

 aspects of the present position of Paheozoic Botany,' but he found 

 his subject too big and his time too small, so he wisely confined 

 his remarks to the interesting topic of Pteridosperms, and he 

 was able to reassure us that true ferns really did exist during 

 the coal period, in spite of the fact that so many so-called ferns 

 had recently been shown to be seed plants. Calcareous nodules 

 and coal balls found in coal seams proved hard nuts to crack. 

 Prof. Weiss, Dr. Stopes, and Messrs. Watson, Lomax, and 

 Bolton all tried their hand with varying success. Dr. Stopes 



Naturalist, 



