172 CRYPTOGAMOUS OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS. [LESSON 27. 



%* CRYPTOGAMOUS OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



493. IN all the foregoing Lessons, we have had what may be 

 called plants of the higher classes alone in view. There are others, 

 composing the lower grades of vegetation, to which some allusion 

 ought to be made. 



494. Of this sort are Ferns or Brakes, Mosses, Liverworts, 

 Lichens, Sea-weeds, and Fungi or Mushrooms. They are all 

 classed together under the name of Floiverless Plants, or Crypto- 

 gamous Plants ; the former epithet referring to the fact that they do 

 not bear real blossoms (with stamens and pistils) nor seeds (with an 

 embryo ready-formed within). The latter name means " hidden 

 fructification," and intimates that they may have something answer- 

 ing to stamens and pistils, although not the same ; and this is now 

 known to be the case with most of them. 



495. Flowerless plants are so very various, and so peculiar in each 

 family, that a volume would be required to illustrate them. Curious 

 and attractive as they are, they are too difficult to be studied botan- 

 ically by the beginner, except the Ferns, Club-Mosses, and Horse- 

 tails. For the study of these, as well as of the Mosses (which are 

 more difficult, and more microscopic), we refer the student at once 

 to the Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, where 

 the species of this country are described and illustrated. The 

 structure and physiology of these plants, as well as of the still 

 lower grades of Lichens, Sea-weeds, and Fungi, are explained in 

 the Botanical Text-Book, and in other similar works. When the 

 student has become prepared for the study, nothing can be more 

 interesting than these plants of the lowest orders. 



