CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS 231 



In the construction of natural systems, the earliest 

 pioneers were the French botanists De Jussieu and De 

 Candolle. Robert Brown and John Lindley in England, 

 and Endlicher in Germany, added much to our knowledge. 

 Later Bentham and Hooker in England, also Eichler and 

 Engler in Germany, materially advanced the natural system. 

 The history and development of botanical classification 

 can be studied in Sachs's History of Botany. The foregoing 

 account sufficiently acquaints the student with the follow- 

 ing important fact : 



A means of classification is to be sought only in the study 

 of the form, function, and development of the organs which 

 constitute plants. 



Concurrently with the advance in botanical classifica- 

 tion, or Systematic Botany, nomenclature received much 

 attention. The binomial system gradually supplanted all 

 others, in which every plant received a compound name, 

 the first representing its genus and the second its species ; 

 and in the case of closely-related forms a third or varietal 

 name was added. Groups of related genera form an order ; 

 of related orders, a cohort ; and of related cohorts, a. family 

 or class. 1 



The chief divisions of flowering plants. A brief summary 

 of the characters of the larger groups will illustrate the use 

 made of the parts of the flower and fruit in classifying 

 plants. All plants which produce seeds, e. g. Pine, Larch, 

 Buttercup, Stock, Primrose, Daisy, Bluebell, and Crocus, 

 belong to one large group, the Spermaphyta (Gr. sperma 

 = a seed, phyton = a plant), and are thus distinguished 

 from such plants as Algae, Fungi, Mosses, and Ferns, 

 which do not produce seeds. 



Cone-bearing plants like the Pine and Larch produce 

 naked ovules : that is, the ovules are not enclosed in an 



1 In some systems of classification the term family is used instead 

 of order, and the latter term takes the place of cohort. 



