416 X. GENERAL REMARKS. 



comital repetitions of all the species of an order added 

 together into one aggregate sum. And if the orders be 

 re-arranged into a series corresponding with those aggre- 

 gate sums, we obtain an ordinal census of the vegetation, 

 which diifers considerably from the ordinal census of the 

 flora. 



Next, is it possible in any manner to bring into the 

 comparison also the size and compound character of the 

 species ? — This question is far more difficult to answer ; 

 that is, to answer in any other form than by the simple 

 negative. It would be quite possible, indeed, to fix upon 

 a scale of size, ranging (say) from Radiola to Quercus, 

 from 1 to 1000, or from 1 to 10,000 ; not by so many 

 single steps, but by leaps increasingly wide, so as to form 

 20 or .50 grades ; which would admit of relative com- 

 parison, without pretending to be either absolute or exact. 

 The grades once fixed on, the figure which represented 

 the size of any species, following the scale, might be 

 multiplied by its comital repetitions. The products of 

 such multiplication, added together by orders, would 

 constitute an ordinal census of the vegetation, com- 

 pounded of the number and size of the species, with their 

 comital repetitious or frequency. 



Although quite possible to patience and leisure, in any 

 country where the localities of plants are numerously 

 recorded, and by a botanist very familiar with the usual 

 size of the species, the trouble of working out such a 

 census may be deemed gTeater than would be compen- 

 sated by any useful result likely to emanate therefrom. 

 The experiment has been tried for Britain, indeed, by the 

 writer of this volume ; the results corresponding with the 

 physiognomical aspect of the vegetation, in the main, 

 more truly than those given by the number of species, or 

 by the number of their re]Detitions, apart from size. But 



