In the Bryophytes water is still absorbed, not only from the soil but also largely from rain, dew, &c., through the general surface of the subaerial body (thallus), or in the more differentiated forms through the leaves.
This surface layer in the typically subaerial shoot of the sporophyte in Pteridophytes and Phanerogams is known as the epidermis, though the name is restricted by some writers, on account of developmental differences, to the surface layer of the shoot of Angiosperms, and by others extended to the surface layer of the whole plant in both these groups.
Geomorphology is the part of geography which deals with terrestrial relief, including the submarine as well as the subaerial portions of the crust.
Being protected by the water from the rapid subaerial erosion which sharpens the features of the land, and subjected to the regular accumulation of deposits, the whole ocean floor has assumed some approach to uniformity.
Produced by long-continued subaerial decay and erosion, in later Cretaceous times this lowland extended from the Atlantic Ocean well toward the interior of North America; since then the whole continent has been generally elevated, and by successive steps the Appalachian belt has been raised to form a wide but relatively low arch.