BOTANICAL MUSEUMS 
9 
work in Part I., tracing out illustrative specimens, and should 
also study natural orders with the aid of Part II., in which 
also details of every specimen studied should be looked out. 
Most good museums also publish guide-books which will 
supplement the information here given. 
V. GENERAL FIELD WORK. 
The student should begin field work on the wild flora 
as soon as he has a good general acquaintance with the 
elements of morphology and with plants of a few natural 
orders (cf. § II. above). He will require a “ Flora ” which 
will enable him to identify the local plants, in addition to 
the present work. 
While at first it is probably best only to dissect, describe, 
and identify the plants met with, as suggested in § II., the 
student, as soon as he feels at home with his work, should 
undertake a definite piece of field work which will involve 
the study of the plants in the light of all the various branches 
of botanical science. He should begin with a definite area, 
as uniform as he can find, e.g. a piece of moor, a sea-shore, 
a sand-dune, a crag-face, a pond, a roadside bank, an old 
building, the tops of a group of pollard willows, an oak, pine, 
beech or mixed wood with its undergrowth, a field or a town- 
garden with its weeds, a circumscribed plot upon a grass- 
lawn, &c. This he should study at all times of year, and 
answer in detail, in writing and with sketches, the following 
among other questions. 
What kind of soil, water-supply, drainage, elevation, 
exposure to light, exposure to wind, shelter from particular 
winds, and other physical features has the area in question ? 
How do all these differ from those of the surrounding areas ? 
What species of plants occur? What proportion do they 
bear to the neighbouring flora ? How many other species 
are there within a short distance? Why are certain species 
present on the area, and the others of the neighbourhood 
absent from it ? What is the means of dispersal (by seed 
and vegetatively) of each species in both sets ? Is absence 
of a good means of dispersal enough to account for the 
absence, and presence of a good means for the presence, of 
