4 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



129. European System. The system commonly fol- 

 lowed in continental Europe reduces plants to four groups, the 

 lowest including the great mass of plants below the mosses. A 

 few of the leading sub-groups are added : 



Group I. THALLOPHYTES. 



1. Myxomycetes. (Slime Moulds.) 



2. Diatomacecc. (Diatoms.) 



3. Schizophyta. (Bacteria, etc.) 



4. Alga;. (In a narrow sense.) 



5. Fungi. (Including Lichens.) 

 Group II. MUSCINE^E. 



1. Hcpaticce. (Liverworts.) 



2. Musct. (True Mosses.) 



Group III. VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS (ferns and their al- 

 lies). 



Group IV. SEED PLANTS (Phanerogamia). 



1 3O. American System. This system is with slight mod- 

 ifications that proposed by Dr. Bessey in his larger Botany in 

 1880, and afterwards modified in his " Essentials." * It consists 

 in a division of the plant kingdom into seven co-ordinate 

 branches, of which the three highest correspond to Groups 

 II-IV. above (129), except in name, while the four lower 

 branches are themselves divisions of the thallophytes. The 

 branches and their leading classes are as follows : 



131. -I. Protophyta. Plant body minute, often micro- 

 scopic, unicellular, or consisting of shapeless masses of proto- 

 plasm ; reproduction entirely asexual by fission, gemmation, 

 or internal cell-division ; contains three classes, of which the 

 first two are "fungi." 



1. Myxomycetes. (Slime Moulds.) 



2. Schizomycetes. (Bacteria and Yeast Fungi.) 



3. Cyanophycece. (Blue-green Scums.) 



132. II. Zygophyta.t Plant body unicellular or consist- 



* Botany for High Schools and Colleges. New York, 1880. (Henry Holt 

 & Co.) The Essentials of Botany. New York, 1884. (Henry Holt & Co.) 



t The evolution of the terms Zygophyta, Oophyta, and Carpophyta is of 

 interest. When Dr. Bessey in 1880 first raised the groups Zygosporece, Oo- 

 sporece, and Carposporece from classes to branches, he retained their names 

 intact. With a view of securing uniformity of termination I suggested in 



