PH^ENOGAMOUS OR FLOWERING PLANTS. 



75 



advance made by Club- Mosses and Ferns in their organs of veg- 

 etation is not attended by any 94 

 corresponding complexity in 

 their mode of reproduction. 

 The spores of Club-Mosses 

 are as simple as those of true 

 Mosses themselves, and the 

 apparatus concerned appears 

 to be less elaborate. The 

 same may be said of Ferns. 

 Even the tall Tree Ferns 

 spring from spores of the 

 same simple character, and 

 of size so small that they are 

 separately invisible to the, 

 naked eye. It is worthy of 

 note, however, that their sim- 

 ple spore cases are borne on 

 the leaves, either on leaves in 

 their natural state as organs 

 of vegetation, or more or less 

 altered to subserve the special purpose. For in like manner, on 

 leaves more or less altered or specialized, the seeds are manifestly 

 borne in the simplest form of 



110. PhSCnoganiOUS* or Flowering Plants, In these we reach at 

 length the perfected type, the highest grade of vegetation. They 

 are the only flower-bearing plants, as their name indicates. Their 

 reproduction is effected through an apparatus essentially different 

 from that of any Cryptogamous plants, namely, by Stamens and 

 Pistils (the essential organs of the flower) ; the stamen producing 

 Pollen, or free fertilizing cells ; the pistil producing bodies to be 

 fertilized, called Ovules, and which after fertilization become SEEDS. 

 While Cryptogamous plants are propagated from spores, or spe- 

 cialized cells, which in germination multiply into other cells, and 



* Sometimes written Phanerogamous. Both terms are made from the same 

 Greek words, and signify, by a metaphorical expression, the counterpart of 

 Cryptogamous; that is, that the essential organs of the flower are manifest or 

 conspicuous. 



FIG. 94. Sketch of a Tree Fern, Dicksonia arboroscens, of St. Helena; after Dr. J. D. 

 Hooker. 95. Polypodium vulgare, with its creeping stem or rootslock. 



