For the associational aspect of ecology the German naturalist, Möbius, proposed in 1877 the term “biocœnosis.” The meaning of this he expressed very clearly and concisely, and on account of its relatively obscure publication, in a paper devoted to oyster culture, it has not gained the circulation among zoölogists which its importance merits. His statement (Möbius, ’83, p. 723) is as follows: “Every oyster-bed is thus, to a certain degree, a community of living beings, a collection of species, and a massing of individuals, which find here everything necessary for their growth and continuance, such as suitable soil, sufficient food, the requisite percentage of salt, and a temperature favorable to their development. Each species which lives here is represented by the greatest number of individuals which can grow to maturity subject to the conditions which surround them, for among all species the number of individuals which arrive at maturity at each breeding period is much smaller than the number of germs produced at that time. The total number of mature individuals of all the species living together in any region is the sum of the survivors of all the germs which have been produced at all past breeding or brood periods; and this sum of matured germs represents a certain quantum of life which enters into a certain number of individuals, and which, as does all life, gains permanence by means of transmission. Science possesses, as yet, no word by which such a community of living beings may be designated; no word for a community where the sum of species and individuals, beings mutually limited and selected under the average external conditions of life, have, by means of transmission, continued in possession of a certain definite territory. I propose the word _Biocænosis_[2] for such a community. Any change in any of the relative factors of a biocönose produces changes in other factors of the same. If, at any time, one of the external conditions of life should deviate for a long time from its ordinary mean, the entire biocönose, or community, would be transformed. It would also be transformed, if the number of individuals of a particular species increased or diminished through the instrumentality of man, or if one species entirely disappeared from, or a new species entered into, the community.” (See Figure 1). [2] From βίος, life, and κοινόειν, to have something in common. [Illustration: FIG. 2.--Struggle for Existence on a Clam Flat. Showing the overcrowded condition of a colony of Soft Clams (_Mya arenaria_) on Rowley Reef, Massachusetts. The pits mark the position of the living clams. Photo. by Belding, loaned by Mass. Comms. Fisheries and Game. ]