PREFACE 



THIS book offers an account of British vegetation from 

 a standpoint which has not hitherto been adopted in 

 any general treatment of the plant-life of this country. 

 An endeavour is made to recognise and describe the 

 different types of plant-community existing in the natural 

 vegetation of these islands, and to trace their relations, 

 so far as these have been elucidated, to climate and soil, 

 and to one another — in other words to present a scientific 

 classification and a balanced picture of British vegetation 

 as it exists to-day. 



The work of systematically surveying vegetation and 

 recording the results on vegetation maps was begun in 

 Scotland by the late Robert Smith in the closing years of 

 last century, and continued by his brother, V<'. G. Smith, 

 and various other workers. In 1904 these workers formed 

 a committee, with the somewhat ponderous title of " The 

 Central Committee for the Survey and Study of British 

 Vegetation," to organise and facilitate work on these 

 lines. 



Tlie memoirs and vegetation maps published by 

 these workers, of which the titles A\ill be found in the 

 Bibliography on p. 367, have formed the nucleus of the 

 material dealt with in the present book, which is thus a 

 direct outcome of the work of the Central Conunittee. 

 Its composition would have been impossible but for the 



