PART II. 



IMPERFECT PLANTS, 



Called also IMPERFECT plants are plants defective, or ap- 

 moL 6 parently defective, in one 6i* other of the more 

 ats * conspicuous parts or organs, whether conservative 

 or reproductive, belonging to vegetables in general ; 

 such as the root, stem, leaf, blossom. Linnaeus 

 characterized them by the appellation of crypto- 

 gamous plants, because their organs of fructification 

 are not yet detected, or are so very minute as to 

 require the aid of the microscope to render them 

 visible. To this circumstance, perhaps, as well as 

 to the apparent insignificance of many of them in 

 the scale of vegetable being, we are to attribute the 

 reluctance with which botanists seem to have en- 

 tered upon the study of them, and the great ob- 

 scurity that still envelopes the subject. Not that 

 the subject has been left altogether neglected ; but 

 that it presents unusual difficulties, retarding in- 

 deed the progress of inquiry > "but enhancing the ' 

 merit of the sedulous inquirer ; as may be exem- j 

 plified in the case of Dillenius, Michelli, Bulliard, 

 and above all, in that of the illustrious Hedwig ! 



