328 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
Chief Physical Features of Northumberland and Durham’ (Geogr. Journ. 
xxx. 1907, p. 56), and to a number of articles in the Geographical Teacher 
and the Scottish Geographical Magazine. 
Nearly every district affords opportunities for geographical research, and 
guidance in such investigations is not lacking, as the Royal Geographical 
Society has of late years instituted a Research Department, one of the most 
important functions of which is to stimulate, direct, and criticise detailed 
local studies. In the summary of the work done during the last session it is 
stated that ‘one important investigation is proceeding, namely, that upon 
the character of our coast, and its history as regards loss and gain, change 
of level, &c. But there are other objects which would repay attention, and 
among them may be mentioned the changes effected by rivers during historic 
times in the position and form of their beds, the change of level of the land 
now in progress from various causes, and the history of the names of fields, 
where these are of ancient date.’ 
Permit me to say a word about botany, or perhaps I should say local floras. 
While it is necessary to compile lists of plants growing in a district, these 
catalogues are apt to be as dry and lifeless as the actual specimens in a 
herbarium. Fortunately the living interest given to field-botany by the 
late R. Smith (Botanical Survey of Scotland: I. Edinburgh District; IT. 
Northern Perthshire, 1900) has led to fruitful results, and the plant-ecologists 
who follow in his steps have done most excellent work, such, for example, 
as the following :— 
‘ Geographical Distribution of Vegetation in Yorkshire,’ by W. G. Smith 
and C. E. Moss, Geogr. Journ. xxi. 1903, p. 375, and by W. G. Smith and 
W. M. Rankin in Geogr. Journ. xxii. 1903, p. 149. J. G. Baker in his North 
Yorkshire, 1885, and F. A. Lees in his Flora of West Yorkshire, 1888, have 
adapted to Yorkshire Thurmann’s attempt in 1849 to classify vegetation 
according to the mechanical constitution of the underlying rock ; this was a 
step in advance, but modern ecology takes a wider view. 
‘Gecgraphical Distribution of Vegetation of the Basins of the Rivers 
Eden, Tees, Wear, and Tyne,’ by F. J. Lewis, Geogr. Journ. xxiii. 1904, 
p. 313, and xxiv. 1904, p. 267. 
‘The Vegetation of the District lying south of Dublin,’ by G. H. Pethy- 
bridge and R. L. Praeger, Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. xxv. B. No. 6, 1905, 
p- 124. 
‘ Peat Moors of the Pennines: their Age, Origin, and Utilization,’ by 
C. E. Moss, Geogr. Journ. xxiii. 1904, p. 660, may be instanced as an inves- 
tigation that has a more human aspect. 
There still remain many areas in the British Islands where nothing of 
the kind has been done, but which will afford ample opportunities for local 
botanists. 
Even in the well-worked subject of zoology there is much that can be done 
in addition to the record of the local fauna. There are numerous aspects of 
ecology that require to be studied. Even such a simple matter as whether 
birds eat butterflies requires further observation. It would not be uninterest- 
ing to record the faunal variations that occur from month to month in a 
selected sheet of water, or to note if the tributaries to a stream or river differ 
from one another as regards the facies of their respective fauna, and, if so, 
to seek for an explanation of the difference. The inter-relations of climate, 
soil, flora, and fauna present illimitable scope for study. 
The Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club has set a good example in its survey 
of Lambay, an island off the coast of County Dublin, and in that of Clare 
Island, now in progress, which might well be followed. The results of the 
former survey were published as ‘ Contributions to the Natural History of 
Lambay’ in The Trish Naturalist, vol. xvi., January and February 1907, 
while those of the latter will be published by the Royal Irish Academy. 
A fascinating and far-reaching subject is masked under the somewhat 
