The book is concerned principally with geobotanical mapping. Geobotany
is a broad science that deals with the study of species and of
vegetation communities in relation to the environment; it includes
other, perhaps more familiar sciences, such as plant geography, plant
ecology, and chorology, and phytosociology (plant sociology).
Geobotanical cartography is a field of thematic cartography that deals
with the interpretation and representation, in the form of maps, of
those spatial and temporal phenomena that pertain to flora, vegetation,
vegetated landscapes, vegetation zones, and phytogeographical units. The
production of a geobotanical map represents the last stage in a
cognitive process that begins with observations in the field and
continues with the collection of sample data, interpretation of the
phenomena observed, and their appropriate cartographic representation;
geobotanical cartography is closely tied to the concepts and scope of
geobotany in general