Excerpt from Plant Studies: An Elementary Botany 1. General relations - Plants form the natural covering of the earth's surface. So generally is this true that a land surface without plants seems remarkable. Not only do plants cover the land, but they abound in waters as well, both fresh and salt waters. They are wonderfully varied in size, ranging from huge trees to forms so minute that the microscope must be used to discover them. They are also exceedingly variable in form, as may be seen by comparing trees, lilies, ferns, mosses, mushrooms, lichens, and the green thready growths (algae) found in water. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.