PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. 
THE first edition of this book was published in 
1861, under the name of ‘Footnotes from the 
Page of Nature; or First Forms of Vegetation,’ 
and has been a considerable time out of print. 
The progress of Cryptogamic Botany during the 
interval has been such as to necessitate very 
extensive revision, especially of the last chapter. 
Having little time for such a task, I would, had 
I consulted my own inclination, have allowed the 
book to disappear ; believing that it had served its 
purpose, and satisfied with the measure of success 
it had achieved. But I have been urged by 
friends, whose scientific attainments lend weight 
to their opinion, to re-issue the book with the 
required additions and corrections—on the ground 
that, notwithstanding the recent multiplication of 
separate monographs upon the lowest orders of 
plant-life, there is still ample room for a com- 
prehensive and popular treatise upon the whole 
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