CHAPTER XIV. 
THH ELM, THE OAK, AND THE NETTLE 
From this point to the end of the book, with the 
exception of the supplementary chapters upon special 
points in plant-life, on which this progression from the 
lowest forms to the highest has not enabled me to touch, 
we shall have to deal with the most highly organised 
group of all, the Dicotyledons, ze. plants which form 
seeds within a seed-vessel, each seed having two seed- 
leaves. 
In the great tests of classification, in method of growth’ 
and way of forming the next generation, they all stand 
on a level. Stamens and pollen, pistils with embryo seeds 
below, are to be found in every case, and if they live long 
enough each develops the cambium ring, and increases 
symmetrically in thickness in stem and branch, the 
“bundles” at their extremity branching out amongst the 
leaves in a network of veins, no longer restrained, as in 
the Monocotyledons, to parallel lines. 
To this great group belong the very large majority 
of our English flowers, and all our native trees, except 
those that bear cones, which were dealt with in 
Chapter XI. As they are all practically at the same 
stage of development, although in one detail or another 
various individuals have made an advance, we can no 
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