History of the British Flora
2nd Edition
Published on 21. August 1975
Book
Hardback
551 pages
978-0-521-20254-1 (ISBN)
Description
The chief aim of this book is the reconstruction of the processes and events that have determined the present flora and vegetation of the British Isles, first of all through the long ages when natural conditions prevailed and cycles of glaciations and recessions and slow geological processes were in charge, and afterwards through the nearer and much shorter span of time during which, from the Neolithic onwards, human interference has progressively and severely altered the scene. This is an exercise in biogeography that Darwin called 'that grand subject, that almost keystone to the laws of nature'. But instead of adopting Darwin's conjectural approach, based largely on circumstantial evidence, what this 1975 second edition achieves is a factual reconstruction of events by records of the actual presence of individual species or genera, in large numbers, at particular sites and specified times through the geological and historic record.
More details
Series
Edition
2nd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Edition type
Revised edition
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Weight
1793 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-20254-1 (9780521202541)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
GODWIN
History of the British Flora
Book
07/1984
2nd Edition
Cambridge University Press
€72.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Additional editions
GODWIN
History of the British Flora
Book
07/1984
2nd Edition
Cambridge University Press
€72.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Content
Prefaces; Part I: Introduction; Part II. Collection and Identification of Plant Remains: 1. General considerations; 2. Seeds, fruits and leaves, etc.; 3. Wood and charcoal; 4. Pollen as an index of presence; Part III. The Background Scale of Pleistocene Events: 1. Glacial and interglacial periods; 2. Radiocarbon dating; 3. The Weichselian; 4. Flandrian geological events; 5. Climatic changes; 6. Mire stratigraphy; 7. Biological evidence; 8. Archaeology; 9. Pollen analysis; 10. Primary divisions of the last fifteen thousand years; Part IV. Recorded Sites: 1. General comments; 2. Scottish sites; 3. Irish sites; 4. Site record; Part V. The Plant Record: 1. Introduction: explanation of conventions; 2. Collected records; Part VI. Pattern of Change in the British Flora: 1. Floristic chances in the Tertiary period; 2. The Ice Age and the interglacial periods: climate, soil and vegetation; 3. The early Pleistocene; 4. The Cromer Forest bed series; 5. The Corton interstadial and the Hocnian stage: middle Pleistocene; 6. The Ipswichian interglacial; 7. Galcial stages: early and middle Weichselian; 8. Glacial stages: late Weichselian; 9. Phytogeographic synopsis; 10. Floristic history in the light of Weichselian records; 11. The beginning of the Flandrian period: the pre-Boreal period; 12. The early warm period: the Boreal period; 13. The thermal maximum and the Atlantic period; 14. Prehistoric husbandry and the sub-Boreal period; 15. The sub-Atlantic period and climatic deterioration; 16. Regional differentiation, migration and survival; Part VII: Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.