112 



PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS. 



Fig. 134. 



FERN. 



rise, at most, above three or four feet in height, yet in 

 tropical countries their trunks are often erect, and fre- 

 quently attain the height of seventy or eighty feet. The 

 tree ferns of the tropics are said to be objects of incom- 

 parable beauty ; their straight, unbranched trunks often 

 rising, like those of palms, as high as forty or fifty feet, 

 without a leaf." Gray. 



42. We also place in this 

 division of the vegetable king- 

 dom the chara (Jig. 135), an 

 aquatic plant, which is very re- 

 markable on account of the 

 singular circulation observed 

 in the interior of the cellules 

 of its tissue. Of the structure 

 of the charse very little is cer- 

 tainly known. They consist 

 of submersed water-plants, hav- 

 ing slender jointed stems desti- 

 tute of leaves, but furnished 

 with whorled branches resembling the F* m 135. CHARA. 



stem. There are only a few species, but these abound in stag- 

 nant waters. 



PHANERO'GAMOUS PLANTS. 



43. This great division of the vegetable kingdom comprises all 

 plants that bear flowers and are multiplied by means of true seeds. 

 They are also called cotyle' donous plants, because the embryo or 

 germ, contained in the seed, is always provided with one or more 

 coty'ledons, organs which serve as depots of food for the nourish- 

 ment of the young plant during the first part of its existence, am 

 are not found in the cryptoga'mia. Vessels as well as cellular 

 tissue always enter into the composition of these plants, and for 

 this reason botanists sometimes designate them under the name 

 of vascular plants. 



They are divided, as we stated before, into two groups, the 

 monocoty 'led.ons and dicotyledons. 



MONOCOTYLE'DONOUS PLANTS. 



44. The most remarkable characteristics of the organization of 

 plants of this division are : 



Explanation of Fig. 134. The leaf of a fern (magnified) seen from below, 

 snowing the capsules containing the sporules. 



42. What are the characters of the genus Chara? 



43. What description of vegetables belong to the division of phanero'ga- 

 mous plants? 



44. What are the most remarkable characteristics of the monocotv'ledons ? 



