2] 



THE VARIOUS GROUPS OF PLANTS 



67 



Fig. 18. — Some examples of Gymnosperms (Gymnospermae). A, a Cycad 

 (Cycas rumphii) ( X -ia) \ B, male twig of Ephedra ( X f), a member of the Gnetales; 

 C, twig of typical Conifer (Piuiis insularis), showing female cones of the three 

 latest years (x ^); D, Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirem), another Conifer 

 (scale indicated by standing man). (Phot. W. S. Cooper.) 



Angiospermae : These, the flowering plants, are evolutionarily 

 the highest, and vegetationally and economically the most important, 

 of all groups in the world today. They are seed-plants, but dis- 

 tinguished from Gymnosperms by having their seeds enclosed in an 

 ovary — a variously shaped, but commonly roundish, vessel formed by 

 the enclosing ' carpel ' (or ' fused ' group of two or more carpels) 



