192 
Ecological Expedition. 
ECOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO THE BOUCHE D’EROUY, 
1905. 
OME account was given a year ago in this journal (“A Second 
Experiment in Ecological Surveying”— New Phytologist, 
Vol. III., p. 200), of an expedition organised by the Botanical 
Department of University College, London, for the study of salt- 
marsh vegetation as developed in a small estuary known as the 
Bouche d’Erquy, on the North Coast of Brittany. Last year the 
work was practically confined to mapping the vegetation of the 
area on a scale of 1 : 240, and of a typical sample on a scale of 
1 : 60. The smaller area was also levelled, so that a detailed 
contour map could be constructed. 
In the present year (Sept. 2-16), a similar expedition was orga¬ 
nised, consisting of about 20 persons; the general map was com¬ 
pleted and levelled, and at the same time an attempt was made to 
study in greater detail the vegetation of a number of small typical 
areas in which the vegetation is sensibly homogeneous. This was 
done by selecting a number of “ stations,” located in such homo¬ 
geneous areas, and investigating the vegetation of each by means 
of the excellent “ chart-quadrat ” and allied methods recently 
devised by Dr. Clements, 1 while simultaneously studying the physical 
conditions to which the vegetation of each station is exposed. In 
the case of the Bouche d’Erquy it is impossible to resist the con¬ 
viction that the striking local variations of the vegetation are 
primarily due to differences in the salinity and water-content of the 
soil, so that the study of conditions was mainly restricted to a 
series of determinations of these factors during the period between 
two successive cycles of spring-tides. 
The organisation of the work of the party was determined by 
these considerations as follows. 
The whole party was divided into three sections, each under 
the direction of a member of the staff. 
Section I. occupied itself with the charting of “quadrats” 
located in the vegetation of the different “stations.” A quadrat 
was always charted on a square decimeter of sectional paper, 
the scale and therefore the area of vegetation varying with the 
requirements of the particular station. So minute and crowded 
are the individual plants in most cases that Clements’ standard 
] F. E. Clements. Research Methods in Ecology, Lincoln, Neb., 
U.S.A., 1905. 
