ioo The Vegetation of the Scottish Highlands. 
• other young Scottish workers, owes much. The contrasts 
between the Highlands and the Lowlands, between the Hast and 
the West, are first touched upon. The effect of geographical 
situation, and of topographical character, of climate, and of vege¬ 
tation upon the inhabitants, and the reactions ol the human 
population and its history upon the vegetation, are briefly surveyed. 
The social and economic differences of the altitudinal zones—the 
maritime zone, the zone of the carses, the agricultural zone, the 
pastoral zone, the forest zone (very reduced), and the alpine zone— 
are described, and the leading plant-associations in their relation to 
man are also shortly dealt with. A final page summarises the 
probable evolution of the plant-covering since the glacial epoch, a 
somewhat melancholy history in its later phases, when “le roi du 
dollar et du stock-exchange, dernier avatar du chasseur a la hache de 
pierre, reprend possession des pentes de'nudees, tandis que le pays 
se transforme en un desert artificiel.” 
The future, it is to be hoped, may be brighter. Mr. Hardy 
shews good reason for believing that the deer forests and grouse 
moors of the east may be re-afforested with comparative ease, the 
lower levels with deciduous woods and the higher with larch and 
pine, while the west will probably always remain predominantly 
pastoral, though much may be done to improve the pastures, and 
extensive planting of spruce may arrest the present excessive 
denudation. 
The work is illustrated by a few (rather poor) half-tones, and 
numerous outline maps and diagrammatic sections. A general 
vegetation map is referred to, but does not accompany the work in 
its present form. Mr. Hardy is to be warmly congratulated on his 
broadly conceived and fascinating sketch, his skill in bringing 
together the data which furnish the basis of his outline and in 
indicating the problems most worthy of further study. 
A. G. T. 
R. Madley. Printer, 151, Whitfield Street, Fitzroy Square, W, 
