6 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
fourth and the bottom boy in the lower fifth, yet the 
general type of each form is absolutely distinct. One 
is endeavouring to translate Virgil, while the other 
is content to wrestle with Cesar; quadratics are the 
highest goal of one, while the other looks, possibly 
vaguely, at indeterminates. 
This, then, will be our general system, but for special 
purposes we shall occasionally have a cross-division, 
just as a football fifteen or a cricket eleven may be 
selected from any form, and we shall have to deal 
separately with carnivorous plants, with parasitic plants, 
and with forest trees. 
In our lowest class we have those plants which consist 
merely of a group of cells, or even of a single cell, 
which have no roots, nor any stem nor leaves, and 
which have no alteration or combination of the cells 
into the vessels and fibres which are described in 
Chapter III. Into this class come an enormous number 
of plants (many of which are microscopic), namely, the 
seaweeds and pondweeds (such as the green scum over 
a stagnant pond), and all the fungi. (See Chapters VI. 
and VII.) Their methods of reproduction are very 
simple and primitive. 
In the second group we reach a higher stage, for 
we now meet with a real stem and leaves. This group 
includes the mosses, but as yet no roots have been 
developed, nor have the fibres and vessels, which may 
be compared to our bony skeletons, as yet appeared. 
Amongst plants the mosses .reach about the same stage 
as the earthworms among animals. As we shall find 
in Chapter VIIL., their method of reproduction becomes 
more complex, and special organs begin to be set apart 
for it. | 
