Book Description

Excerpt from The Origin and Propagation of Disease: An Anniversary Discourse, Delivered Before the New York Academy of Medicine, November 20, 1873 A little over half a century ago the species of flowering plants described by botanists were much more numerous than the cryptogams; but now the proportions of the two classes are reversed. In 1818, according to Mr. Cooke,1 an eminent Brit ish botanist, less than eighty Of the more minute species of fungi, but few Of which deserved the name of microscopic, were supposed to contain all then known of these wonderful organisms. Since that period microscopes have become very different instruments and one result has been the increase Of the 564 species of British fungi to 9. By far the greater number of the species thus added depend for their specific characters upon microscopical examination. At the present time the number of British species of flowering plants scarcely exceeds three-fourths of the number of fungi alone, not to mention ferns, mosses, algae, and lichens. 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.