250 THE BIOCOSMOS PARTICULARIZED. 



preme group, or even the need of it seenis 

 not yet to have penetrated our Anglo-Saxon 

 botanical brains, English and American. 



The outcome, however, we may now put to- 

 gether: the total Generation of Plant-life 

 shows three grand divisions Thallophytes, 

 Bryophytes, and Corrnophytes; these also 

 form a process together in which we may 

 well catch a gleam of Psyche as the ultimate 

 orderer, who shows herself in the largest 

 sweeps and likewise in the minutest cells, of 

 Nature. 



The Cormophytes (De Candolle's Vascu- 

 lares) henceforth form the center of botanical 

 interest, and they too have a subdivision, 

 which also is seen to be threefold. These are 

 the Pteridophytes (Ferns in which the seeds 

 or spores are developed but not yet separ- 

 ated from the leaf) ; the Gymnosperms (in 

 which the seeds are separated from the leaf, 

 but unenclosed) ; the Angiosperms (in which 

 the seeds are enclosed in their distinct house 

 or seed-vessel). It is evident that here the 

 stress is upon the seed (or spore) by means 

 of which the individual plant reproduces it- 

 self and so persists as species through time. 

 This seed is, therefore, its essentially genetic 

 principle, its participation in creation itself, 

 of which every Plant is a little living dot. 

 The seed-world, including grains, fruits, ber- 



