Synecology and Aufecology 3 



The present book attempts to describe the principal 

 kinds of plant-communities or units of vegetation met 

 with in the British Isles. During the last twelve years 

 a great deal of work has been done in observing and 

 describing these vegetation-units, and their relationships. 

 The work is far from complete even in the matter of 

 mere description, and this book necessarily carries many 

 evidences of the incompleteness. Yet enough is known to 

 justify the attempt at a preliminary sketch of the subject, 

 which it is believed will interest botanists and lovers of 

 nature, as well as students of scientific geography. 



It may be said that we ought not to occupy ourselves 

 with synecology till we have a complete or an approxi- 

 mately complete knowledge of autecology, but this is a 

 mistaken notion. It might as reasonably be contended 

 that we ought not to study the phenomena presented by 

 the nations and races of men before we know all about 

 the physiology and psychology of the individual man. 

 As a matter of fact the study of synecology is consider- 

 ably in advance of autecology (which is indeed stUl in 

 a very backward state of development), and the progress 

 made has amply justified the attention devoted to the 

 wider though less fundamental branch of the subject. 

 The plant-community, in fact, oiiers a convenient mode 

 of approach to the study of plant-life in relation to habitat. 

 The systematic description and classification of vegetation 

 affords a natural framework in which autecological studies 

 will find their proper place. 



There has recently been a great deal of discussion 



, ^ as to the nomenclature of ecological phyto- 

 Nomenclatirre t ii • i-i 



and ciassifl- geography or synecology, and nothmg hke 



cation of general agreement yet exists as to the 



vegetation- proper naming and classification of the 

 different categories of vegetation-units or 

 plant-communities. One of the main subjects of con- 

 tention is the use of the term plant-formation, which we 



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