First Sentence

"Algae are treated in this book in the same sense as they are in many introductory phycology texts (e.g., Van den Hoek et al., 1995; Sze 1998; Graham and Wilcox, 2000); that is, they are considered to be a loose group of organisms that have all or most of the following characteristics: aquatic, photosynthetic, simple vegetative structures without a vascular system, and reproductive bodies that lack a sterile layer of protecting cells."