14 STUDIES OF SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 



Phanerogams and Cryptogams have much in common, 

 as has just been stated : the highest Cryptogams closely 

 resemble the lowest Phanerogams. Yet the latter, as a 

 whole, form a well-marked group by themselves. One 

 mark of distinction may be stated thus : 



Phanerogamous plants grow from seed and bear flowers 

 destined to the production of seed. By many recent 

 authorities they have been termed Seed Plants, or Sper- 

 matophytes; and this designation is more significant than 

 the earlier and commoner one of flowering plants. 



The reproduction of Cryptogams is carried on by means 

 of spores, bodies very much smaller and simpler than the 

 smallest and most rudimentary seed. The spores contain 

 no ready-formed plants. They go through a series of 

 changes, quite unlike anything to be observed in the 

 germination of seeds, before the form of the plant which 

 gave rise to them is reproduced. The pollen of flowering 

 plants, which must be familiar even to those who have 

 paid little or no attention to plant structure, closely 

 resembles the spores of the floweiiess plants. This may 

 enable one to see, at a single glance, the wide difference 

 between spores and seeds. 



The Members of a Complete Plant 



The seedlings studied in the last Exercise were com- 

 plete plants. They were provided with all necessary 

 organs of vegetation. All phanerogamous plants con- 

 sist of (1) root, and. (2) shoot ; the shoot consisting of 

 (a) stem, and (6) leaf. It is true that some excep- 

 tional plants, in maturity, lack leaves, or lack roots. 

 These exceptions are few. The parts of the phanerogams 

 studied are to be assigned to root, stem, or leaf. Let 

 it be understood that when in the studies on flowering 

 plants the question is asked, " What is the mor*phology, 

 or nature, of this part ? " this is equivalent to asking, 

 " Is the part in question of the nature of root, or .of 

 stem, or of leaf?" 



