Pethybridgk & Praeger — Vcyetation South of Dublin. 127 



be directed. In this little book a number of vegetation-formations 

 are set forth, and under each the leading plants, as well as the 

 secondary and dependent species, are enumerated, and characters given 

 for their recognition. A book of this kind dealing with Ireland, with, 

 perhaps, more ample notes on the environmental conditions of the 

 formations, and with information on some of the leading structural 

 peculiarities in the chief plants occurring in them, would be of great 

 value, and should be forthcoming when the vegetation of the country 

 has been more thoroughly studied from the new standpoint. 



From what has been said above, it will be seen that the first 

 step in the study of the vegetation of a district lies in the recognition 

 in the field of the aggregate of plant species which go to make 

 up the associations, and in the broad characterisation of these 

 associations according to the dominating plants found in them. The 

 first study of this nature on any district in the British Isles was that 

 on the plant associations of the Tay Basin, Part I., published by the 

 late Eobert Smith in 1898(7). Having determined the associations, 

 it next became possible to survey their limits, and to indicate their 

 distribution on a map of the district. The pioneer in botanical 

 surveying in these islands was also the late Ptobert Smith, who 

 published Part II. of his Plant Associations of the Tay Basin (8) 

 in 1900, with a map, and brought forward his scheme for a Botanical 

 Survey of Scotland in the same year (9). In this year also the first 

 two instalments of his Survey, with maps, were published separately 

 by Bartholomew (10). In the descriptive text to the first of these 

 two maps, Robert Smith points out that more or less detailed botanical 

 surveys of particular districts had been already made in America and 

 on the Continent, the most complete of those then attempted being 

 the vegetation map of Prance in course of preparation by Prof, 

 riahault, the first sheet of which appeared in 1897 (11). 



As his brother, Wm. G. Smith, points out in a paper (12) read 

 before the Glasgow meeting of the British Association in 1901, it was 

 during a winter spent by Robert Smith with Flahault at the University 

 of Montpellier that " an enthusiastic master inspired a willing pupil, 

 and sent him home prepared to begin the work in Scotland." The 

 progress of this Survey of Scotland, so well started by Robert Smith, 

 unfortunately received a check by his lamented death in the very year 

 in which publication had been begun. 



The work in Scotland has, however, been continued by Wm. G. 

 Smith, and the vegetation maps of Forfar and of Fife, togetlier with 

 descriptive illustrated text, were published in 1904 and 1905, while 



