86 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



but after all that is a minor matter, for the mosses are unim- 

 portant little beings, however interesting for their own beaux 

 veux, and the treatment of the unimportant is not of such great 

 consequence. 



But the whole matter is different with the other groups 

 mentioned. They do lay foundations — all the foundations of 

 later plant history — and we have no right to pick at random 

 the specimens that go into the picturing of those profoundly 

 significant evolvings of primordial plant life. 



I have sketched out in the following what I have grown 

 to consider an ideal series, from the standpoint of the consider- 

 ations referred to above. Naturally, substitutions in it may be 

 suggested, but in most cases, any substitution would lose some 

 one or more of the desirable points presented in the "ideal" 

 type enumerated. 



For the institution of plant study I select one of the 

 nitrifying organisms, a non-chlorophyllous, non-flagellated 

 organism, without nucleus, and with homogeneous (non- 

 alveolar) protoplasm — the simplest holophyte conceivable. In 

 such a form there is no stumbling-block for the student in the 

 way of already present specializations. At the same time, it 

 furnishes an ideally simple morphology in which the whole 

 series of assimilation-reactions is accomplished : the synthesis 

 of carbohydrates, of amino-acids, of proteins; and together 

 with these the universally present respiratory, growth, and 

 reproductive functions. To have these fundaments worked out 

 in such an elementary exemplar simplifies their comprehension 

 tremendously — that much as concession to good pedagogy ; and 

 incidentally, this choice of example is vouched for by the best 

 of authorities, Nature herself, inasmuch as without question 

 such organisms were the earliest types. 



From the nitrifying bacteria (non-flagellated) the way to 

 an understanding of the Chroococcaceae and Oscillatoriaceae 



