PRACTICAL PLAXT ECOLOGY 
315 
the modern practice in almost every other branch. It may have 
been this difficulty of fully appreciating the special problems to be 
faced that has deterred many from its study ; and the present volume, 
by the first President of the British Ecological Society and the 
editor of its Journal, is the first attempt to provide beginners 
with a guide to the field study of vegetation. 
The history of the subject in this country is well known. Robert 
Smith having studied under Professor Flahault of Montpellier, who 
was making vegetation-maps based on the distribution of the chief 
trees, attempted to apply the method in Scotland, but found it more 
satisfactory to map the vegetation as a whole. Smith died in 1900 
at the age of 26, and his brother William, then of Leeds, carried on 
the work, his first collaborators being C. E. Moss and W. M. Rankin. 
Other workers were attracted to this primary survey, and in 1901 
a Central Committee for the study of British vegetation was formed 
to organise and facilitate work on these lines ; the British Ecological 
Society was founded in 1913 to meet the demand made by increase in 
the number of botanists interested. An effort was made at one time 
to have vegetation-maps published by the Government similarly to 
the Geological Survey Maps ; Types of British Vegetation , written 
principally by members of the old Vegetation Committee and 
edited by Mr. Tansley, represents very well the state of the subject 
in this country at that date (1911). It is a curious fact that the 
practical cessation of this type of study more or less synchronised 
with the formation of the Society, and workers began to specialize 
more on definite associations. 
The present work concerns itself fully with the modern tendencies 
of the subject in this country, and will doubtless stimulate many to 
follow some at least of its suggestions. The book is divided into 
five parts : Introductory ; Structure; Distribution and Development 
of Vegetation ; Method of Studying Vegetation ; Habitat; Ecology 
in Schools—an appendix deals with such important matters as Life 
Forms of Plants ; Methods of Surveying Vegetation ; Determination 
of Hydrogen Ion Concentration ; Determination of Carbonates, of 
Magnesia, Lime and Potash, and of Salt (by H. J. Page); and classified 
lists of books and papers. The introductory part treats of what 
ecology is—“plant ecology in the wide sense is more a means of 
approach to a large part of detailed botanical study than a name for 
a special branch of the subject ”—and with natural and semi-natural 
vegetation. The second part is concerned with the units of vege¬ 
tation ; the succession of vegetation, the account of which seems to 
be a little complicated by the interpolation of Clements’s nomencla¬ 
ture ; and an excellent outline of British vegetation which unfor¬ 
tunately is restricted to less than twenty pages. The third part is 
the one to which many will first turn. Here are described the scope 
and aims of ecological work, methods of primary survey, and intensive 
investigation by means of gridirons, quadrats and such like. The 
fourth part discusses habitat, analyses the environment and sorts out 
the factors. These are all treated in the modern style, but in biotic 
factors far too much stress appears to be placed upon the rabbit. To 
a casual observer it is very obvious that rabbits affect vegetation 
