Plant Distribution in the Woods of North-East Kent. 
PART I. 
BY 
MALCOLM WILSON, B.Sc., A.R.C.S., F.L.S. 
Senior Demonstrator in Botany, Imperial College of Science and Technology , South Kensington. 
With Plates LXIV-LXVI and four Figures in the Text. 
LTHOUGH the subject of Plant Geography has, in recent years, 
A attracted considerable attention in this country, comparatively few de¬ 
tailed descriptions of plant distribution in small areas have appeared. While 
the vegetation of large districts in the north of England and Scotland has 
been described and mapped, little or nothing has been published on plant 
distribution in the southern counties. This is especially the case with re¬ 
gard to Kent. In a county of this kind where almost the whole area is 
under cultivation, the woodlands form perhaps the most suitable subject 
for investigation. 
Moss, Rankin, and Tansley ( 13 ) have recently published a general 
account of the woodlands of England, and have drawn attention to the great 
prevalence of coppiced woods in this part of the country. Considerable 
areas in North-East Kent are covered by woods of this description. The 
periodic felling which takes place in these brings about great alterations 
in the physical conditions, and the following paper will deal largely 
with the resulting changes in the vegetation. 
Woodhead ( 17 ) has made one of the most important contributions 
dealing with the distribution of woodland plants. In this paper a detailed 
description of the vegetation of several woods in the neighbourhood of 
Huddersfield is given, and the effects of differences in illumination and in the 
soil composition respectively are discussed. 
Cieslar ( 3 ), in 1904, gave a full account of the part played by light 
during the growth of the forests near Vienna. He has shown the great 
effect of shade in influencing the number of herbaceous species in a given 
situation ; the origin of the ground flora is also discussed. 
Fliche (6) has given an account of the reafforestation of areas in the 
Forest of Champfetu, near Sens (France), and the consequent disappearance 
of certain species. This paper is of especial interest since it deals with 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXV. No. C. October, 1911.] 
