PREFACE TO PART II 



OWING to the immense variety of organisation among 

 the Cryptogams, it has been necessary to describe a 

 much larger number of types in the present volume 

 than in Part I. While it was possible to give some 

 idea of the main outlines of structure in Flowering 

 Plants by the full description of three representatives, 

 it has seemed desirable to select no less than twenty - 

 three types for the illustration of Cryptogams, and even 

 then many important groups have been left out. The 

 increased number of types has involved a curtness of 

 treatment, in most cases, which only the relative sim- 

 plicity of many of the forms has rendered possible. 



It is hoped, however, that the essential morphological 

 points have been brought out, and that a certain 

 continuity has been maintained throughout the book 

 so that the study of the selected examples may serve 

 to give a connected idea however elementary of the 

 great groups of plants. In order to afford a general 

 view of the whole field, the concluding summary has 

 been added. 



When theoretical points are touched on, the great 

 aim has been to avoid dogmatism, and, so far as space 



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