22 



BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



divisions (Classes, Orders, etc.), according to their 

 characteristics, which are largely taken from the 

 structure of the flowers. The general explanations 

 are given in the Introduction, and we will now 

 proceed to notice the various Orders, etc., which 

 include British plants, with special reference to 

 those figured. It will be good practice for the 

 beginner to compare the plants themselves with 

 our figures and descriptions, and verify the 

 characters which we have given. All botanists 

 do not follow the same arrangement in classifying 

 the Orders of plants. That followed here will 

 be found to correspond nearly with that employed 

 in the latest English scientific compendium : 



Babington's "Manual of British Botany," edition 9 

 (1904). 



Plants with flowers in which distinct stamens 

 and pistils are visible are called Phanerogamia, or 

 Flowering Plants, and these alone are discussed in 

 the present work. 



Plants without real flowers, and multiplying by 

 spores, are called Cryptogamia. These are Ferns, 

 Mosses, Seaweeds, Lichens, Fungi, Diatoms, 

 Bacteria, etc. ; and the lowest organisms merge 

 into the Protozoa — extremely rudimentary forms, 

 which cannot be satisfactorily regarded as either 

 animals or vegetables, but are not yet differentiated 

 into either one or the other. 



