THE AMERICAN 



MONTHLY 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 



Vol. X. APRIL, 1889. No. 4. 



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 can Monthly Microscopical Journal, Box 630, Washington, D. C. 



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. Desmids : Their Life History and Their Classification.— II. 



By Rev. FRED'K B. CARTER, 



MONTCLAIR, N. J. 



(Continued from page 38 '.) 

 For a long time the desmids were held to be animals. Ehrenberg so 

 considered them, and it is only within the last thirty years that the ques- 

 tion has been definitely settled in regard to their vegetable nature. We 

 separate, then, first the mineral and animal kingdoms and confine our- 

 selves to that which lies between. Now this vegetable kingdom has 

 two grand divisions, the Phanerogamia and the Cryptogamia, the flow- 

 ering and the non-flowering plants ; or more correctly, according to the 

 latest definition, the plants which reproduce by seeds and those which 

 are propagated by spores. The Cryptogamia again comprise two dis- 

 tinct sub-divisions, plants with woody matter and those without. The 

 Horse-tails, Ferns, and Club-mosses belong to the first : the other mosses, 

 Sea-weeds, Lichens, and Fungi belong to the second ; and this is the 

 section which concerns us. Mosses, Sea-weeds, Lichens, and Fungi, 

 then, the four lowest classes of the lowest grand division of the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom — among these our favorites find their true place. Sea- 

 weeds or algse, that is the name of the class or group, and they are at 

 the very bottom of the list, the lowest of all green things upon the 



Copyright, 1889, by C. W. Smiley. 



