26 Phytogeographical Excursion in the British Isles. 
made us much better acquainted with each other’s views and field 
interpretations, and also made it possible to read each other’s 
writings much more understandingly than heretofore. Close 
companionship has made us more sympathetic with opposing view¬ 
points, and more ready to see at least some truth in views we 
thought were wholly wrong. Such results must come from every 
excursion of this sort, and if only we have enough of them to bring 
all the active phytogeographers of the world into sympathetic touch 
with others of their kind, we may hope soon to see a marked 
diminution in the misunderstanding of view-points, and in the 
amount of polemic literature. It is from such intimate acquaintance¬ 
ship among the workers and, perhaps, only thus that we may hope 
for constructive advances in securing uniformity of terms and 
methods. For example, it is difficult for an American to understand 
from the literature the precise signification of such terms as heath 
or moor, but in the field last summer these and other terms of the 
European workers were so often illustrated by concrete examples 
that they became thoroughly familiar. 
As an American, I was, of course, much interested in seeing 
intelligently new kinds of vegetation. To the European members 
of the party this joy was much less possible, although there seemed 
to be points of considerable variance, even with Continental Europe. 
I was amazed at the vast amount of wild country in densely 
populated England. The extensive areas of the Broads, the sand- 
dunes and salt-marshes, the numerous heaths and moorlands, were 
more widespread and much more natural than I had expected them 
to be. While America may be more fortunate than Europe in the 
possession of great natural formations of plants, I was fully con¬ 
vinced that in the British Isles, at least, there is quite enough to 
occupy phytogeographic students actively for a long time to come. 
Many successional series were observed, whose progression or 
retrogression was quite as evident as in American formations, and 
to whose significance the British workers are fully alive. 
I cannot close these rambling notes without expressing my 
admiration for the splendid organization of the British plant 
geographers. Doubtless it is largely this that has enabled them to 
accomplish so much in so short a time. My admiration for British 
social customs, as we saw them, is also very great. The hearty 
greetings that met us everywhere, the interest expressed in our 
work on the part even of those who could know little of it, the 
constant display of whole-souled British hospitality—all these 
things and many more have made August, 1911, a most memorable 
period in our lives. 
HENRY C. COWLES. 
The University of Chicago. 
2.—PROFESSOR JEAN MASSART. 
Les points qui m’ont frappe le plus vivement pendant 
l’excursion sont les suivants. 
1. L’abondance et la beautd des grands arbres, surtout des 
chenes, qui vivent partout entre les champs et au bord des chemins. 
