INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 3 



sometimes forming forests of vegetation as dense and almost 

 as impervious as the jungles of the tropics. If the observer 

 now turn to the soil itself, or to the fallen leaves and decayed 

 twigs which are destined to increase its mass, a multitude of 

 new beings meet his eye; fleshy gelatinous bodies of various 

 sizes and forms, without a trace of anything approaching to a 

 frond, mixed with mere threads and filaments ; or carbonaceous 

 structures, none of which can for a moment be referred to the 

 other two grand classes of vegetables ; and then when he has 

 learnt to recognise some common attributes in these multitu- 

 dinous forms, which lead him to comprehend them under one 

 great division, he is cognisant of the fact, that there are other 

 objects, often of considerable size, and sometimes acquiring the 

 stature and in some measure the aspect of palms, covering 

 frequently immense tracts of land to the exclusion of most 

 other objects of vegetation, which, though forming a distinct 

 group amongst themselves, are still referable to the other 

 mass of organisms, at first apparently so heterogeneous, by 

 certain peculiarities of vegetation, but more especially by 

 the absence of those organs which are essential to the pro- 

 duction of perfect seeds. He will indeed be liable at first, 



Fig. 1. 

 A single leaflet of Sktngeria paradoxa, a Cycad lately discovered at 

 Port Natal, to show the peculiar venation, so closely resembling that 

 of many ferns, from a specimen communicated by Dr. Hooker. 

 1 * 



