From the publisher's original 1939 announcement:
'The first systematic account of the natural and semi-natural plant communities of the British Islands was published in 1911, under the title Types of British Vegetation. That book, for which the present author was largely responsible, gave an important new direction to field work; and since its publication the subject has grown so extensive that this much larger book became needed.
'Here is given a comprehensive account of the vegetation of the country, with an ample physical and historical and a full complement of maps, charts, diagrams and photographs. The book is written so as to be intelligible to everyone who is seriously interested in the subject and students of cognate branches of natural history as well as by plant ecologists.'
Volume I.
Part I. The British Islands as Environment of Vegetation;
Part II. History and Existing Distribution of Vegetation;
Part III. The Nature and Classification of Vegetation;
Part IV. The Woodlands;
Volume II.
Part V. The Grasslands;
Part VI. The Hydroseres;
Part VII. Heath and Moor;
Part VIII. Mountain Vegetation;
Part IX. Maritime and Submaritime Vegetation;