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Note on the Relations between the Geological Formation and the Vegetation 
which grows upon it. 
For several years past Mr. R. H. Cambage has specialised on the relations 
between the native vegetation of New South Wales and the geological formations 
on which it grows. 
Recently Dr. H. I. Jensen has been giving attention to the same subject with 
reference to the soils. 
Now the trees of New South Wales, if not the most abundant, form the most 
prominent (I would like to write permanent) items of the vegetation; and because 
they are most readily recognised, I ask my readers to contribute observations which 
may be rendered available to workers in this field. 
The flood of ecological literature which has appeared during the last few 
years has given great impetus to the study of plants in their relations to geological 
formations and soils derived therefrom. This work has chiefly been carried out in 
Europe and the United States of America. 
In Australia, with a vast and botanically imperfectly explored territory, 
we require specific records in abundance of the relations of plants to geological 
formations. 
It would he well to study the geological maps of local areas and to systematic¬ 
ally collect the more characteristic vegetation on an area to begin with. The 
Eucalypts would he collected as a matter of course, chiefly because they are so 
abundant and widely distributed, but certainly not to the neglect of the other trees, 
shrubs, and herbs. The sciences of botany and geology go hand in hand; and in 
regard to the present subject we have to feel our way, because we cannot say a priori 
what are the' characteristic plants of a formation. 
And when these data are collected, the trouble will commence of translating 
their scientific import. Soil is hut one factor in the determination of the vegetation 
upon it—climatic conditions (really a very wide phrase) have a very important 
bearing on the well-being and even the existence of a species in a given spot. But 
data carefully collected and recorded are always valuable, even if the time may not 
have arrived for us to interpret their meaning. 
I submit a few papers which will he of interest to my Australian readers, 
hut the list is admittedly incomplete and tentative. It is published simply with the 
view to get more co-operators. 
When a more ample list of papers shall have been compiled, it would he a 
useful task for a student to extract and collate all the specific instances given by the 
various authorities of the partiality of certain plants for specific areas. 
I would like to say that the subject is far more difficult than it would appear 
to be at first sight. Given the plant records, and the determination of the geological 
