The policies proposed above for work on the environmental relationships of
lesser-known plants may seem extremely radical to research workers who
have spent decades using conventional research approaches; but the proposals
amount to little more than suggesting that we begin for the computer-literate
what was begun centuries ago for the language-literate. All that is different
about the current proposals is that the methods will permit a great increase
in the mobilisation of personal knowledge about plant/environment
relationships and greater interaction with people outside formal research
organisations.