Why Does the Absorption Spectrum Have Fewer Lines Than the Emission Spectrum?

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SUMMARY

The absorption spectrum exhibits fewer lines than the emission spectrum due to the nature of electronic transitions. In the emission spectrum, transitions occur from excited states to lower energy states, resulting in multiple lines. Conversely, the absorption spectrum only shows transitions from the ground state to excited states, omitting lines corresponding to transitions between excited states. This fundamental difference explains the observed discrepancy in line counts between the two spectra.

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I found an emission spectrum and an absorption spectrum of some element in my book. The lines match, but there are less lines in the absorption spectrum... What's the meaning of this? All other examples I found on the internet have the same amount of lines, which seems pretty logic to me.
 
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Some of the emission lines are from one excited state to another.
These lines do not appear in absorption on the ground state.
 

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