A GENERAL SURVEY 13 



of a lifetime the desert has been converted into 

 a productive area, crowded with all the evidences 

 of life. This could never have taken place had 

 it not been for those pioneers which were the 

 first to take up a position on this inhospitable 

 region. There is Httle doubt that, were the 

 botanist confronted with the task of planting a 

 new world, he would call into requisition the 

 humble flowerless plants which must have first 

 of all started the clothing with verdure of the 

 earth on which we live. 



It has been hinted that the flowerless plants 

 must now take a second place in any classifi- 

 cation of vegetable types. At the present 

 period of the world's history the flowering 

 plants are enormously in the ascendancy. Not 

 only are they the most impressive so far as size 

 and habit are concerned, but the actual number 

 of forms is very large indeed. It is considered 

 likely that for every two species of flowering 

 plants there will not be more than one non- 

 blossoming kind in the world. As the world 

 becomes older it is probable that this dis- 

 proportion will be even more pronounced. 

 There is small doubt that one of the reasons 

 which is hampering the flowerless plants is the 



