Abstract
THE letter of Dr. V. J. Chapman and his associates in Nature of November 24, 1945, will be warmly welcomed by all who, like myself, have endeavoured to contribute to the study of tropical ecology. The necessity of fundamental ecological knowledge to the progress of forestry and agriculture, in fact to any rational scheme of land utilization in the tropics, is so clear that it need not be further argued ; it is also evident that much of our current teaching in ecology, as well as in other branches of biology, would be set in a truer perspective if more consideration were given to tropical vegetation and the conditions for plant growth in the tropics. As van Steenis1 has pointed out, in attempting to study vegetation and to arrive at generalizations which will serve to relate the various plant communities to one another, it would be more logical to begin with the floristically rich vegetation of the tropics than, as we now do, with the impoverished vegetation of northern Europe and North America. W. H. Brown2 wrote in much the same strain in 1919.
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References
van Steenis, C. G. G. J., Tectona, 30, 625 (1937).
Brown, W. H., "Vegetation of Philippine Mountains" (Manila, 1919), p. 43.
Richards, P. W., J. Ecol., 24 1, 340 (1936).
Richards, P. W., Tansley, A. G., and Watt, A. S., J. Ecol., 28, 224 (1940).
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RICHARDS, P. Need for the Development of Tropical Ecological Stations. Nature 157, 377 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157377a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157377a0
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