PROBLEM 2. The Kinds of Vlams of the Earth 



8i 



Fig. 105 All the plimts yoii see m this photograph are Sperinatophytes. They hear 

 flowers and seeds. If you were to go to the scene of the photograph, where would you 

 be likely to find algae atjd fungi, mosses and liverworts, and ferns and horsetails? 

 (eva luoma) 



The two chief groups of flowering or 

 seed plants. This division includes plants 

 that you may not have thought of as 

 "flowering" or seed plants, the cone 

 bearers. 



Thus there are tw^o large groups in this 

 phylum: 



1. The cone bearers and their relatives 

 (Gvrnno sperms — jim'no-sperms). 

 Botanists think of them as seed 

 plants with u ncovere d or naked 

 seeds. 



2, The true flowering plants (Angio- 

 sperms — an^iee-o-sperms). To bot- 

 anists thev are the seed plants wdth 



covered seeds. 



The cone bearers. The scales of the 

 cone hold the uncovered or naked seeds. 

 These plants are called conifers (kon'i- 

 furs) and most of them are evergreen. 

 The leaves of conifers are usually hard 

 needles or tiny scalelike leaves which can 

 withstand the winter drought (lack of 

 moisture) and cold. The needles live for 

 two or more years, so the trees remain 

 green at all times. There are many dif- 

 ferent kinds of conifers or evergreens: 

 the giant redwoods of the west, the many 

 kinds of pines, firs, hemlocks, cedars, and 

 smaller plants or shrubs like the yews. 

 Some people carelessly call many of the 

 evergreens "pines." The true pines are 



