AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 171 
vegetable productions is comprehended. They 
are called PHANEROGAMOUsS Plants,—those in 
which the essential parts of a flower are pro- 
duced and are visible. 
The other Great Division contains what are 
called Cryprocamous Plants,— those which 
have no visible flowers, and in which the parts 
of fructification are concealed, and invisible to 
all ordinary observation. 
Of the latter class it is proposed now to 
speak. In the Linnzan system they form 
Class XXIV., Cryptogamia. Though they 
have no true flower with stamens and pistils, 
yet they are capable of producing a vast quan- 
tity of the germinating bodies called sfores, 
whence it comes that they appear in great 
abundance in situations favourable to their pro- 
duction; and although flowerless, they contribute 
probably more than any other plants to beauty 
and ornament, in their endless variety of form, 
and multiplicity of shades of green and brown. 
They are the very artists of the prettiest bits 
of nature, and sometimes the painters, on a 
grand scale, of vast tracts; compare the shady 
nook in which the Fern makes its home with 
the “Red Snow” of the Alps, both alike 
