40 IMPEEPECT PLANTS. 



We have now gone through the parts of which perfect plants are 

 composed, and it remains but to recapitulate their names, and place 

 them before the eye at one view : — 



The Parts of a Perfect Plant. 



The Root, consisting of caudex and rootlets, which end in spongioles. 

 The Stem, usually dividing into branches and twigs, and generally 



composed of wood, bark, and pith. 

 The Leaves, consisting of blade or lamina, and footstalk or petiole, 

 and either simple, compound, or divided. 

 r Calyx, formed of sepals. 

 Corolla, formed of petals. 

 Stamens, formed of filament and anther, 

 The FxowEK, consisting of^ ^he latter containing pollen. 



f Ovary, containing ovules, 

 or rudimentary seeds. 



Pistil, formed of j gf^ig 



V Stigma. 

 The Fruit, or ripened ovary, containing seeds. 



L 



IMPERFECT PLANTS. 



"Imperfect Plants" are those in w^hich the grand feature of the 

 "perfect" division, namely, the blossom, is either absent, or developed 

 in a manner so entirely different as to have gained for them the name 

 of " flowerless." No plants are absolutely destitute of flowering or 

 reproductive powers ; nor, judging from philosophical analogy, of that 

 ■wonderful two-fold princi])lc which has its highest manifestation in 

 male and female. But there are many in which it is extremely diflB.- 

 cult to be determined, the apparatus found in perfect plants being 

 represented very faintly even in the highest. Linna;us gave to the 

 imperfect division of plants the appi'opriate name of Cryptogdmia, or 

 "hidden-flowered." While expedient to call them "flowerless" in 

 practice, it is important therefore to remember that these plants are 

 not destitute of reproductive parts, but simply that the latter are 

 developed after another manner. Flowerless plants seldom develop 

 stems ; the greater part arc low-growiug and inconspicuous, consisting 

 merely of leafy organs, and often of nothing more than crust-like, or 

 spongy, or thready, or fibrous matter, and, at the lowest ])oint, of no 

 more than a few microscopic cells of coloured fluid. In our own 



