CHAPTER IV. 



FLOVVERLESS OR CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS. 



Thus far I have avoided reference to those plants which 

 are commonly regarded as Flowerless, and which have long 

 been classed together under the general term of Cryptogaftis^ 

 from the apparent absence of organs corresponding to the 

 stamens and pistil of the plants which have hitherto occu- 

 pied our attention. 



We have passed these plants by because, from the con- 

 siderable difference which obtains between their structure 

 (both of the Reproductive and of the Nutritive organs) 

 and that of Flowering Plants, they cannot be conveniently 

 studied together. Any study, however, of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom from which they are wholly excluded must be 

 exceedingly incomplete ; and now that facility in observing 

 has been acquired, attention may be directed to these so- 

 called lower plants, with a fair chance of comprehending 

 the relation in which they stand to the Flowering Plants 

 already familiar to us, and of mastering a few of the principal 

 features of their leading FamiHes. 



The more logical course might seem to be to study first 

 these simple forms, and progress from them to the more 

 complicated, to which latter we have hitherto confined 

 our attention • but from the excessive minuteness of their 



