ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE 

 AMONGST PLANTS. 



CRYPTOGAMIC VEGETATION. 



THE entire vegetable world of great and small, 

 from the Australian gum tree to the smallest 

 microbe, is divisible, for scientific purposes, into two 

 primary sections, which are termed respectively the 

 Phanerogamia, or flowering plants, and the Crypto- 

 gamia, or flowerless plants ; but it is only with the 

 latter that we are called upon to deal. It may be 

 premised that they are designated z.'i flowerless plants, 

 because the organs of fructification are not developed 

 into conspicuous flowers, as in the Phanerogamia, and 

 are even so elementary in some cases that they are 

 reduced to a simple ovary, or ovum, or repro- 

 ductive cell. 



For general purposes, it is customary to speak of 

 one section of Cryptogamic plants as the Higher 

 Cryptogamia, inferring that they approach nearest 

 to flowering plants ; and the other section as the 

 Lower Cryptogamia, intimating that it embraces 

 the Icv.-est, or simplest forms. The former includes 



