CHAPTER VII 



PHANEROGAMIA : FLOWERING PLANTS 



It is customary to call nowerless plants " Cryptogams " 

 (Gr. kryptos, concealed; gamos, marriage). Perhaps the 

 term is not so appropriate as it was erstwhile considered 

 to be, for the process of fertilization in the nowerless 

 plants is now traceable by means of the microscope, and 

 we know a good deal about it. All the plants we have 

 considered up to the present point are nowerless, and, 

 according to " use and wont," we speak of them as 

 " cryptogamic "; but we have arrived at that stage in 

 our story of plant-life at which we have to discuss the 

 flowering plants, or Phanerogams (Gr. phaneros, visible; 

 gamos, marriage). In such the sexual organs are mani- 

 fest to the naked eye, but if we would follow the process 

 of fertilization in its more subtle details, we need the 

 assistance of the microscope equally as much as with the 

 Cryptogams. 



The Flowering plants, to the casual observer, seem to 

 be very distinctly marked off from the Cryptogams; 

 the two great divisions of plant-forms, although they 

 may appear side by side, may outwardly betray no 

 inter-relations, and seem to be of quite independent 

 origin. However, as knowledge resulting from careful 

 research increases, the apparent sharp distinction 

 between the divisions becomes less clearly defined; in 

 brief, our present knowledge amounts practically to 



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