Green Plants: Their Origin and Diversity (Ecology, Phytogeography & Physiology Series, Vol 4) - Hardcover

Green Plants is a totally revised edition of the earlier Diversity of Green Plants by P. R. Bell and C. L. F. Woodcock. The revisions document the latest information on the most exciting advances in the relevant areas of botanical science.
The central theme of this book is the remarkable diversity of forms evolution has fashioned in geological time from the carbon continually being fixed by photosynthesis. The author's detailed treatment of the full scope of the Plant Kingdom extends from the simplest cellular organisms to the complexities of the flowering plants. There are many references to ultrastructural and physiological features which relate growth and form firmly to the most current concepts in the study of plant development. The author maintains a refreshingly cautious and objective approach in his discussions of possible phylogenetic relationships and includes newly developed information on the essential features of the plants we know only from fossils.
A tremendous resource for the high school and college classroom, as well as for amateur botanists, Green Plants conveys a clear impression that botany is a truly dynamic science. It provides information on topics from cellular structure to life cycles and reproduction of plants. This book is a timely, well-illustrated, and concise account of the whole range of algae and land plants by a leading botanist well acquainted with teaching and research in the plant sciences.