REVIEW 
VEGETATION OF THE PEAK DISTRICT. By C. E. Moss. Cam- 
bridge University Press, 1913. Svo. pp. x, 235 ; figs. 33 ; maps 5. 
Price 12.s. net. 
It is a far cry from South Africa to the Pennines. Nevertheless, this 
study of the vegetation of the Peak District contains much that should be 
of interest to students of the vegetation of South Africa. In South Africa 
we are still engaged in discovering new species and in learning the elements 
of the distribution of those which are not new. This is the spade work 
which, in general, must precede a more intensive study of the vegetation 
as a whole or of the species which compose it. A few studies of an 
ecological character have been undertaken in South Africa 1 and there is 
an enormous scope for their extension. 
The work before us gives the results of a comprehensive and detailed 
survey of the plant-communities of the Peak District and of the conditions 
which control their origin, their existence and their disappearance. This 
branch of botanical enquiry is yet in its infancy and, in the words of one 
of its pioneers, “ what we do not know seems infinite.” The author of this 
work is taking a prominent part in the organization and execution of 
ecological research in England ; his methods and conclusions are worthy 
of the close attention of any who propose to advance the study of South 
African Botany by pursuing similar investigations here. The Peak District 
affords several striking examples of plant-communities comparable in many 
inspects with some which are characteristic of certain parts of South Africa ; 
therefore, even the detailed account of its associations is not without its 
interest to those whose sphere of work is in this country. But of stronger 
appeal probably will be the valuable discussion and application of general 
principles contained in the Introduction (pp. 1 — 37). 
It frequently occurs in the early stages of the development of a branch 
of science that there is difficulty in arriving at a consensus of opinion as 
to the precise meaning of even the fundamental conceptions upon which its 
deductions are founded. This is conspicuously the case in ecology in which, 
among the many points regarding which the workers are at variance 
is the limit to be assigned to the principal unit of classification, the 
“ formation.” Dr Moss, voicing the views of the English school, defines 
1 E.g. Bews, J. W., “The Vegetation of Natal,” Anna la of the Natal Museum, n. 3, l l J12. 
