Abstract
THE supplementary part of the seventh volume is entirely occupied with a sketch of the geographical botany of Belgium by Dr. J. Massart, providing a continuation of the more specialised account of the vegetation of the littoral and alluvial districts by the same author published in the original volume, and previously noted in NATURE. The sketch does not contain any such detailed observations as are recorded in the botanical surveys carried out in Great Britain by W. G. Smith, C. E. Moss, and others, but incorporates the results of various Belgian researches, notably the modification of leaves in dry and moist localities furnished by Miss M. Ernould, the periodic phenomena of vegetation carefully studied by the meteorologist, Dr. E. Vanderlinden, in connection with climatic variations, as well as several geological and agricultural investigations. Geology occupies a more prominent position than is usual in an cecological botanical memoir, and practically supplies the basis of treatment in the most important chapter. The classification of associations is artificial. Uncultivated and cultivated areas are placed in antithesis. As might be expected in a country ivhere mountain ranges are wanting and intense cultivation is general, there are few natural associations; apart from the dunes, the most important are the types of vegetation growing on cliffs and rocks.
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Belgian Botanical Investigations 1 . Nature 88, 599 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/088599a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/088599a0