10 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. [SECTION 1. 



5 The vegetable kingdom is so vast and various, and the difference is 

 so wide between ordinary trees, shrubs, and lierbs on the one hand, and 

 mosses, moulds, and sueh like on the other, that it is hardly possible to 

 frame an intelligible aceount of plants as a whole without contradictions 

 or misstatements, or endless and troublesome qualifications. If we say 

 that plants come from seeds, bear flowers, and have roots, stems, and 

 leaves, this is not true of the lower orders. It is best for the beginner, 

 therefore, to treat of the higher orders of plants by themselves, without 

 particular reference to the lower. 



6. Let il be understood, accordingly, that there is a higher and a lower 

 series of plants ; namely : — 



Phanerogamous Plants, which come from seed and hear Jlowers, es- 

 sentially stamens and i)istils, througli the co-operation of which seed is 

 produced. For shortness, these ai'c commonly called Phanerogams, or 

 Fhanogcims, or by the equivalent Enghsh uame of Flowering Plants.* 



Cryptogamous Plants, or Cryptogams, come from minute bodies, which 

 answer to seeds, but are of much simpler structure, and such plants have 

 not stamens and pistils. Therefore they are called iu English Flowerless 

 Plants. Such are Ferns, Mo.sses, Algae or Seaweeds, Fungi, etc. These 

 sorts have each to be studied separately, for each class or order has a plan 

 of its own. 



7. But Phanerogamous, or Flowering, Plants are all constructed on one 

 plan, or type. That is, taking almost any ordinary herb, shrub, or tree for 

 a pattern, it will exemplify the whole series : the parts of one plant answer 

 to the parts of any other, with only certain differences in particulars. And 

 the occupation and the delight of the scientific botanist is in tracing out 

 this common plan, in detecting the likenesses under all the diversities, and 

 in noting the meaning of these manifold diversities. So the attentive study 

 of any one plant, from its growth out of the seed to the flowering and 

 fruiting state and the production of seed like to that from which the plant 

 grew, would not only give a correct general idea of the structure, growth, 

 and characteristics of Flowering Plants in general, but also serve as a pat- 

 tern or standard of comparison. Some plants will serve this purpose of a 

 pattern much better than others. A proper pattern will be one that is 

 perfect in the sense of having all the principal parts of a phanerogamous 

 plant, and simple and regular in having these parts free from complications 

 or disguises. The common Flax-plant may very well serve this purpose. 

 Being an annual, it has the advantage of being easily raised and carried 

 in a short time through its circle of existence, from seedling to fruit and 

 seed. 



1 The name is sometimes Thanprogamoiis, sometimes I'luenoyamous (P/ianero- 

 gams, or Vhm.^gams), terms of llic same meaning etymolopieally ; the former of 

 preferable form, but the latter shorter The meauiiig of such terms is explained 

 in the Glossary 



