CLASSIFICATION OF VEGETABLES. 163 



extreme, and, not content with acknowledging them to be 

 the remains of the vegetable kingdom, recognised in their 

 imperfect impressions the characters of existing plants, and 

 pointed out ears of corn and maize, flowers of the tulip and 

 the aster, and the fruit of the pine-apple ! 



The true characters and relations of fossil plants were 

 studied and determined by the labours of Schlotheim, and 

 Faujas de St. Fond, on the continent ; Parkinson and 

 Artis, in this country ; and Steinhauer, in America, up to 

 the distinguished continental botanists, Sternberg, Presl, 

 Cotta, Nceggerath, Agardh, Nillson, Nau, Martius, and 

 Brongniart; and their worthy fellow-labourers in this 

 country, Witham, Bowman, Lindley, and Hutton. 



The most useful works on the subject are the Prodrome 

 and the Histoire des Vegetaux Fossiles, by Adolphe Brong- 

 iiiart; the Versuch einer Greognostisch-BotaniscJienDarstellung 

 der Flora der Vorwelt, by Count Graspar Sternberg, con- 

 tinued, after the blindness and decease of this venerable 

 and ardent cultivator of science, by Presl. As the foreign 

 publications here enumerated are large and expensive, 

 and chiefly relate to forms of plants derived from foreign 

 localities, and not occurring so frequently in this country, 

 the reader is recommended to commence with the excellent 

 English work, entitled the Fossil Flora, by Lindley and 

 liutton. 



CLASSIFICATION OF VEGETABLES. The student of fossil 

 botany will find it expedient to follow the method prescribed 

 for other branches of natural science, and commence the 

 study of the present vegetation of the earth as the means of 

 deciphering that of the past. The following, sketch will 

 afford an outline of the classification of the vegetable king- 

 dom. For more ample details we refer to the admirable 

 Introductions by Sir William Hooker, Sir J. E. Smith, Dr. 

 Lindley, &c. 



The classification of Jussieu, usually termed the Natural 

 System, is that now generally adopted. According to this 

 method, plants are divided into two great divisions. The 

 first consists of those which are composed entirely of cellular 

 tissue, are destitute of vessels, and whose embryo or germ 

 has no cotyledons, or seed-leaves, whence they are termed 

 acotyledonous ; they are also named cryptogamic, from 



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