. MINERALOGY. 389 



The incomplete dicotyledonous plants, comprise the rectembrose 

 group, having the embryo straight, and the calyx very imperfect, as 

 the oak, chesnut, birch, mulberry, walnut, elm, hop, and hemp ; the 

 achlamydose group, having neither calyx nor corol, as the willow, 

 poplar, and buttonwood, to which Lindley adds the achitospermous 

 plants, the pine, yew, cedar, and sago ; the tubiferous group, hav- 

 ing a tubular calyx, as the sassafras ; and the curvembrose group, 

 having the embryo curved, as in the beet, and buckwheat. 



The second class of plants, the monocotyledonous, or endogenous 

 plants, are characterized by the wood and pith being mingled, and 

 the true bark wanting ; the leaves having parallel veins ; the parts of 

 the flower being ternary or threefold ; and the perianth often in two 

 rows. This class is divided by Lindley into the epigynose group, 

 having complete flowers, above the ovary, as in flower-de-luce, and 

 saffron ; the spadicose group, with herbaceous or imperfect flowers, 

 as in the sweet flag, cat-tail, and asparagus ; the glumose group, 

 with scale-like bracts attached to the flowers, as in wheat, oats, or- 

 chard grass, rice, cane, and Indian corn ; the hypogynose group, 

 having the ovary within a colored flower, as in the palm, lily, tulip, 

 onion, and bulrush ; and the gynandrous group, having the stamens 

 united with the styles, as in the ladies' slipper. 



Of the acotyledonous or acrogenous plants, which constitute the 

 Linnean class of cryptogamia, we have already given some idea, in 

 mentioning the Linnean orders. They are cellular plants, wanting 

 in proper vessels, growing by increase at the extremities, and propa- 

 gated by means of sporules, instead of perfect seeds. 



CHAPTER III. 



MINERALOGY. 



MINERALOGY, is that branch of Idiophysics, or Natural History, 

 which treats of minerals ; their classification, composition, proper- 

 ties, and uses. The name is derived from the word mineral : and 

 this from the French word mine, a mine ; because from mines are 

 many of the most valuable minerals derived. This science has also 

 been termed Oryctognosy, from the Greek, opvxtos, or fossil, and 

 yi/wtftj, knowledge or science. A mineral, as the term is now used, 

 signifies any inorganic natural substance ; whether gaseous, as the 

 air; or liquid, as water; or solid, as stones and earths : but the term 

 fossil, from the Latin fodio, I dig, is now applied exclusively to 

 organic remains ; that is remains of plants or animals, which have 

 been buried in the earth ; the study of which pertains, in part, to 

 the preceding branches. The study of Mineralogy, is limited to 

 simple minerals, considered independently or individually; and the 

 study of their arrangement, or association, in the strata which compose 

 the surface of our globe, together with the distribution of fossils 

 therein, is reserved for the science of Geology. But, considered even 

 in this limited sense, Mineralogy is a science not devoid of interest; 



2 K2 



