Vin PREFACE 



werden wir zu dem richtigen und einheitlichen Ausschauung gelangen." 

 The author agrees heartily with this point of view. 



The book assumes, on the part of the reader, an acquaintance with 

 botany equivalent to that obtained from a general elementary course, 

 although some elementary descriptions and discussions are, of necessity, 

 included. 



During the preparation of this book, the author has been impressed 

 with the importance of the earlier morphological literature, that of the 

 middle of the nineteenth century especially, to the research of the 

 twentieth century. Facts and theories discussed in the earlier period, 

 overlooked or forgotten during the succeeding decades of increasing 

 specialization, have been presented again in the twentieth century. The 

 understanding of the earlier students of morphology is remarkable in the 

 light of the small amount of factual information available to them; in- 

 terpretations made a century ago often appear to be sounder than some 

 later ones; today many botanists, in their highly specialized fields, 

 lose sight of the broader aspects in the maze of details in their own 

 particular area. 



In Chap. 11, the morphology of a few families is discussed in some 

 detail, as examples of the use of morphology in determining relative 

 advance in evolutionary modification, and to provide examples of struc- 

 ture important in the interpretation of specialized form throughout the 

 angiosperms. The families selected for discussion are those that possess 

 the most primitive characters — the lowest dicotyledons and monocoty- 

 ledons. The inclusion of the Amentiferae and Proteaceae — taxa some- 

 times considered primitive dicotyledons — was planned for this chapter, 

 but they were omitted because of restriction in book size. 



A bibliography for general consultation follows the last chapter, and a 

 bibliography following each chapter covers the subject matter in the 

 chapter. The bibliographies contain only a small part of the references 

 consulted in the preparation of this book; the citation of all of these 

 would fill another book. Selections were made on the basis of general 

 importance from the viewpoint of the treatment in this book and of the 

 size and excellence of their bibliographies. Also cited are works from 

 which illustrations have been borrowed. 



The author is indebted to all the many botanists who, over a century 

 and more and throughout the world, have laid the foundation for the 

 treatment in this book. He is grateful to the many botanists from whom 

 he has borrowed published illustrations and to Miss Elfriede Abbe who 

 drew Figs. 28, 37, 38, and 97; to Mr. A. List who drew Fig. 3A to C; to 

 Dr. A. T. Hotchkiss who provided the photographs of Etipomatia hen- 

 nettii for the frontispiece and for Fig. 144; to Dr. L. J. Edgerton for Fig. 



