The British Islands and their Vegetation

Abstract

THE subject of plant ecology, like the science of which it forms a part, began as a purely descriptive study concerned with the natural or semi-natural aggregates of diverse species that constitute plant communities, instead of with the conceptual aggregates of similar individuals that are the concern of the taxonomist. Moreover, in its inception the study of plant communities was mainly floristic. The pioneers in Great Britain were the brothers Robert and W. G. Smith and it was at the latter's house in 1904 that the Central Committee for the Survey and Study of British Vegetation had its inception. This gave place to the British Vegetation Committee and this in turn, nine years later, was replaced by the British Ecological Society with the Journal of Ecology as its official publication.

The British Islands and their Vegetation

By A. G. Tansley. Pp. xxxviii + 930 + 162 plates. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1939.) 45s. net.