THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE IT. ANTS. 157 



kingdom are reached as slime-fungi, algae, fungi, liverworts, mosses, 

 ferns, conifers, seed-plants with one seed-leaf in the seedling, and seed- 

 plants with two seed-leaves in the seedling. 



The families are now most frequently arranged according to the 

 manner in which they are supposed by some to have originated, the 

 more simple coming first and the more complex last. Thus, amongst 

 seed-plants the pine-tree family begins the list, and the daisy family 

 completes it. 



Considering the seed-plants alone, New Zealand has between 

 fourteen and fifteen hundred species, about three-fourths of which 

 are found nowhere else, the number varying according to the com- 

 puter's conception of a species. Cheeseman gives 1,415 as the 

 number, but the writer's estimate is same what higher. 



It would be out of place to go at any detail into the families and 

 genera, so only a few of the more interesting are mentioned. Neither 

 can any attempt be made to define the families, &c., in popular 

 language a task of extreme difficulty, and, when accomplished, harder 

 for the beginner to understand than would be his learning the necessary 

 technical terms, which have a definite meaning and can be used with 

 precision. 



THE FAMILIES AND GENERA. 



The daisy family (Compositae) is the largest of our families. What 

 is popularly called the flower is not so, but is really a collection of 

 small flowers placed closely side by side upon the expanded summit 

 of the flower-stalk, and forming a " head." The cotton-plants, or 

 mountain-daisies (Celmisia), the groundsels (Senecio), the vegetable- 

 sheep and its relatives (Raoulia), the cotulas and the helichrysums 

 belong to this order. Many are amongst the most striking of our 

 plants, both in form and flower. 



The bluebell family (Campanulaceae} has not many representatives 

 with us. It contains the New Zealand bluebell (Wahlenbcrgia saxicola), 

 whose white or bluish flowers are so conspicuous a feature of the upland 

 meadow, and the pretty white pratias which are related to the well- 

 known lobelia of gardens. 



The madder family (Rubiaceae) contains the large genus Coprosma, 

 which is closely related to the coffee-plant. Coprosmas can always be 

 recognised by the male and female flowers being on different plants, 

 and bv the berrv-like fruit containing two plano-convex stones. 



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