60 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



seem to me well chosen and the result quite admirable as an 

 elementary guide or outline for a beginner." 



Such a system must be based on knowledge that is already 

 possessed by the student concerning actual, tangible, definite 

 conditions and materials ; otherwise a whole bookful of zvords 

 describing the subject is vague and more or less meaningless. 

 This outline is practically a table of contents of Strasburger's 

 "Systematic Botany," except that it has a few illustrative 

 words after each technical one, but some explanation is neces- 

 sary to point out a few broad facts or principles, that cement 

 it all together and make a complete whole of it. Its chief ad- 

 vantage is that it introduces the student immediately to plants 

 with which he is familiar, thereby combining practice with 

 theory at the outset. 



Reading over the names of the plants in the order in 

 which they are presented in the Outline, gives a good idea of 

 what kind of plants grow from Spores and what other kinds 

 grow from Seeds: that is, it gives an idea of the difference 

 between the general ai)pearance of Cryptogams, (Sub-King- 

 dom 1) and that of Phanerogams (Sub-Kingdom 2). Of 

 course plants have many ways of reproducing and scattering 

 themselves, Ijut the Spore and the Seed methods make an 

 ideal basis for a systematic classification, chiefly because in 

 each division these methods of reproduction do not \'arv much, 

 while everything in any plant during all other periods of its 

 life seems to vary often beyond recognition if the environment 

 is not normal. 



Going more into detail, the curious fact ma}- be pointed 

 out that in Division 1 TliaUophyta, the .llgae and Fungi form 

 two practically jjarallel series similar in every way, except 

 that the former are "self-sui>i)orting" (with rare exceptions) 

 while the latter are i)arasitic excepting possibly the nitrogen 

 bacteria. Lichens are not individual species; each lichen is 



