22 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



13. I shall not dwell upon the extreme and manifold 

 interest of the several objects which come within the view 

 of the Cryptogamist. If variety and delicacy of structure, 

 beauty of form and colour, and the nicest transitions from 

 group to group, from genus to genus, besides a host of curious 

 questions of physiology and adaptation of means to particular 

 ends, are worthy to engage attention, Cryptogams most surely 

 will not be amongst the most unprofitable objects of study. 

 There will be scope, too, for the acutest powers of thought and 

 observation, unless he is content merely to skim the surface 

 of things. Even independently of the necessity of using 

 optical instruments, a point often much exaggerated, for if 

 the minuter points of physiology in Phsenogams are deeply 

 studied, no less an amplifying power is necessary, and 

 perhaps even greater tact and skill in manipulation, the 

 difficulties which arise from the wide limits within which 

 not merely species but accredited genera are capable of 

 varying, are sufficient to exercise the highest mental qualifi- 

 cations. It does not follow, however, that the end ob- 

 tained should be at all proportional to the necessary labour. 

 The objects which the accomplished Cryptogamist has in 

 view, are not comprised within the mere determination 

 of species or the admiration of the exquisite forms and combi- 

 nation which meet him at every turn. If he aims at nothing- 

 higher than the first, he may indeed be useful in his genera- 

 tion, provided he be cautious enough, and possessed of sufficient 

 self-denial to prevent his striving to glorify himself, rather 

 than to clear the road for investigators of higher pretensions. 

 If beauty of form and singularity of structure be alone his 

 object, his time may be passed agreeably enough, but in most 

 cases, like ten thousand microscopists of the present day, he 

 will be but a mere trifler, without any better aim than 

 innocent amusement ; or if he be a dabbler in science, with 

 some wish to attain a reputation which he has not the patience 

 to seek after by a continued course of study and mental 

 discipline, he will be deriving general inferences from isolated 

 half-understood facts to the detriment and confusion of real 

 science. Perhaps, of all literary dissipation, the desultory 



