CHAPTER VI. 



FLOWEBLESS PLANTS. 



WHILE plants, in their higher grades of develop- 

 ment, are ornamented with those beautiful instruments 

 of self-perpetuation termed flowers, others, which 

 compose the lower grades, instead of being propa- 

 gated by the agency of calyx and corolla, stamens 

 and pistil, are in a special and popular sense flowerless. 

 No plant is absolutely destitute of the means of repro- 

 ducing itself; nor does any plant fail to give illustra- 

 tion of that wonderful twofold energy of nature which 

 culminates in man and woman. It is true, neverthe- 

 less, that many vast tribes and races of plants, 

 including many forms of considerable bulk and alti- 

 tude, never present anything to our eyes (so long, at 

 least, as unassisted by a microscope) that can legit- 

 mately be called a flower ; while others, though they 

 anticipate the idea of the flower, and in the most 

 exquisite manner, do so rather in symbol than in 

 similarity of parts and organs. Such are the lovely 

 plants everywhere so much admired and assiduously 

 cultivated under the name of Ferns ; such, too, are 



