1918.] The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
71 
At first the new cult had but few adherents, nor was it welcomed by the 
older workers, who looked at it askance ; but by degrees it has risen in 
importance so that it now takes a recognized place in text-books; it 
appears in the examination questions of universities ; and there are even 
ecological societies in Great Britain and the United States, and a Journal 
of Ecology. 
New Zealand, too, has played her part in the new development, and 
possibly possesses more workers in the science in proportion to her 
population than any other country. This is not to be wondered at, since 
the scope in all directions for ecological research offered by New Zealand 
is exceedingly wide. 
It has already been shown that the ecology of a particular plant may 
be studied or that of combinations of plants. In the former case, known 
as “ autecology,” the full life-history of the plant is sought; its organs, 
their forms in relation to their functions are studied, and also its powers 
of variation under different conditions. “ Synecology,” on the contrary, 
deals with the natural or artificial combinations of species—the plant- 
communities. Their investigation includes as thorough a study of the 
evironment as may be feasible, embracing also the effect of plant upon 
plant and that of animal on plant or plant on animal. 
Now, it is evident that whether a plant-community be truly primitive, 
as are so many in New Zealand, or whether it has been created in part, 
or wholly, by man’s agency, all the processes taking place amongst the 
plants are quite natural. Therefore facts based upon the study of a virgin 
vegetation and on those of an artificial or a modified vegetation are of 
equal value, the same laws governing both. The ecology of the virgin land 
is, then, the ecology of the farm, except that on the latter man can pur¬ 
posely alter the conditions to which the plants are subject in order to 
increase their economic efficiency. 
In New Zealand, too, there is every gradation between the primitive 
vegetation and the most artificial, so that there is hardly any ecological 
research, however non-utilitarian it may seem, which is not dealing either 
with actual or potential farm-lands. Thus few non-economic ecological 
studies lack entirely the economic aspect. 
For example, several papers* have been published dealing with the 
evolution of the plant-covering of a shingly river-bed. These studies have 
apparently no economic bearing, and yet they show the manner in which 
Nature transforms a stony waste into tussock-clad plain— i.e., into “ sheep- 
country.” It also demonstrates how, under different conditions, certain 
grasses of more or less economic value increase or decrease, and how 
various non-economic herbs do likewise. Finally, this same study shows 
not merely what species survive or vanish, but it tells what special 
plant-forms are an advantage or disadvantage, as the conditions change, 
and how one particular fcrm, the cushion-form, by its making first an 
admirable seed-bed, and then, on its death, adding humus to the soil, 
greatly facilitates the settlement of various grasses, &c. 
It would be a comparatively easy matter to continue in a purely 
economic direction such a research as that just outlined, using as a starting- 
point the facts already gained. For instance, it is possible to find out, 
more or less accurately, the wool-producing capacity of this ultimate grass¬ 
land, together with what sets bounds to that capacity and what means 
* L. Cockayne, On the Peopling by Plants of the Subalpine River-bed of the 
Rakaia (Southern Alps of New Zealand), Trans. & Proc. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. 24, 
1911, pp. 104-25; C. E. Foweraker, The Mat-plants, Cushion-plants, and Allied 
Forms of the Cass River-bed (Eastern Botanical District* New Zealand), Trans. N.Z . 
Inst., vol. 49, 1917, pp. 1-45. 
