Ecological Surveying. 
167 
AN EXPERIMENT IN ECOLOGICAL SURVEYING. 
It may he of interest to many of our readers to know of an 
experiment in ecological surveying by a number of advanced 
students, recently carried out by the Botanical Department of 
University College, London. 
The locality chosen was Eastern Norfolk. Here, in the well- 
known “ Broad ” region, one has comparatively large stretches of 
undrained marsh, bordering on the shallow lakes or Broads and the 
rivers with which they are connected. In places these marshes pass 
gradually into the adjacent Broads, which tend to be filled up by 
the invasion of the marsh-plants if they are not kept clear by 
dredging and reed-cutting. These marshes are practically at 
sea-level, and in some places, where they approach very near to the 
coast, they are only separated from the sea by a barrier of blown 
sand. This sand forms typical dunes bearing the regular sand-flora 
for considerable stretches of coast. On the land side the sand is 
blown over the fresh-water marsh in a thin layer, and here the flora 
is transitional between sand and marsh. 
Thus there exists in E. Norfolk both freshwater and sand 
floras largely undisturbed by cultivation, so that the natural 
“associations ” or communities of plants are well seen. 
The method adopted on the recent expedition was first to 
familiarise the members of the party with the type of scenery and 
the constitution of the marsh and water flora by sailing through a 
part of the country, visiting the marshes and collecting at intervals; 
afterwards two or three days were spent in a selected limited 
area which shewed a more or less typical development of the marsh 
and water associations. During the whole time the party lived and 
worked on two yachts, which formed a very satisfactory mobile base. 
Finally two days were spent in examining the flora of the sand dunes 
on a part of the coast. 
Collections as complete as possible were made of the plants on 
the areas specially studied, the different “ associations ” were 
recognised and their boundaries approximately traced, or, in other 
cases, “ sections ” were made through the area in a direction 
transverse to the “ strike” of the formations, the inclination of the 
ground, if any, the character of the soil, the water-level, and the 
dominant and subordinate species being noted at different points of 
the section. An interesting section was in this way made for instance 
through the “ rand ” or undrained marsh bordering on one of the 
