THE PROBLEM 29 



different views taken of species do not so very 

 much matter. Neither does the fact that many 

 new species have been described since the year 

 1900 affect the question. 



Making a free use of Professor Vines's sta- 

 tistics, and rounding off his figures, we get the 

 following results: 



Angiosperms or Flowering Plants . . 103,000 



Gymnosperms (e. g. Conifers) .... 2,500 



Vascular Cryptogams (e. g. Ferns) . . 3,500 



Mosses and Liverworts 7,500 



Fungi and Bacteria 40,000 



Lichens 5,500 



Algse (e. g. Seaweeds) 14,000 



176,000 



Thus, of all known plants more than four- 

 sevenths belong to the Angiosperms or Flower- 

 ing Plants. The figures bring home to us in a 

 statistical form what every one knows that 

 the Angiosperms or Flowering Plants are be- 

 yond all question the dominant class of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom as it now exists. I speak 

 of the Angiosperms as the Flowering Plants 

 although that term is often used to include the 

 Gymnosperms (Conifers and their allies) also. 

 We do not, however, naturally speak of a fir- 

 cone as a "flower," and in this case popular 



