Water Plants: A Study Of Aquatic Angiosperms

Author approached the study of Water Plants with the hope that the consideration of this limited group might impart some degree of precision to my own misty ideas of evolutionary processes. Botanists seem to be universally agreed that the Aquatic Angiosperms are derived from terrestrial ancestors, and have adopted the water habit at various times subsequent to their first appearance as Flowering Plants. The hydrophytes thus present the great advantage to the student, that they form a group for whose history there is a generally accepted foundation. The first three Parts of this book may be regarded as a clearing of the ground for the more theoretic considerations concerning the evolutionary history of water plants to which the Fourth Part is mainly devoted. In that section of the book, and sporadically in the earlier chapters.