!S=vv VORX 



PREFACE. 



This work has been chiefly drawn up from my 

 notes of Lectures delivered at Stockwell Training 

 College, and the Public Library, Lavender Hill. 



The material has been gathered from the most 

 reliable sources, and frequent reference to Sachs' 

 excellent Text Book, to De Bary's Comparative 

 Morphology and Biology of the Fungi, and to the 

 works of Strasburger, Bower, and Vines has been 

 made. 



The chief aim of the book has been to reduce to a 

 concise form the life histories of the various plant 

 organisms, detailed in the Advanced Syllabus of the 

 Science and Art Department. The special difficulty 

 of young students studying for this examination is 

 a want of the necessary time to pick out from a host 

 of others the special characters of the species intended 

 for detailed study ; this difficulty I have attempted 

 to overcome, believing that when these types have 

 been thoroughly mastered the larger works will be 

 read with profit and pleasure. The book has been 



