54 Nature protected 
mapping was commenced in Great 
Britain over 60 years ago. In 1843, 
H. C. Watson began to represent the 
areas of the distribution of species and 
genera of plants on separate small 
charts, all on the same scaled 
A Vegetation Survey of the British 
Isles was commenced by the late Mr 
Robert Smith, who published his first 
maps in 1900. Mr Robert Smith was 
a pupil of that brilliant plant geographer 
Professor Charles Flahault, of Mont- 
pellier. Flahault's method of repre- 
senting vegetation by recording the 
distribution of dominant forest trees on 
a map^ was at first proposed in Scotland; 
but in view of the general absence 
of primitive woodland and the great 
proportion of cultivated land in Britain, 
^ Watson, H. C. The Geographical Distribution 
of British Plants. 3rd ed., London, 1843. 
2 Flahault, Charles. Essai d'une Carte Botani- 
que et Foresti^re de la France. Ann, de Geog.^ 
No. 28, 1897, pp. 289-312 (with map). 
