212 On the Classification of Plants. 



I. — Flowerless Plants {Cryptogams). 

 I. Alg^e. — Mostly seaweeds. 2. Lichens. — "Mosses" on rocks, 

 bark, fences, &c. 3. Fungi. — Toadstools, mushrooms, puff-balls, mould. 

 4. Hepatic^. — Liverworts, lichen-mosses. 5. Mosses. — Well known. 

 6. Equisetace/e. — Horse-tail rushes, scouring rushes. 7. Ferns. — Well 

 known. 8. Hydropterides. — Water-ferns, little known. 9. Lycopods. 

 — Ground-pines. 



II. — Flowering Plants {Phanerogams). 



1. Endogens. — Seeds produce but one original leaf; stems mostly 

 herbaceous, unbranched ; leaves without branching veins ; parts of flowers 

 in threes and sixes. Examples : grasses (including bamboo, corn, and 

 cane), palms, orchids, lilies (pond-lilies are not lilies), iris, tulip, and 

 hyacinth. 



2. Gymnosperms. — " Evergreens." 



3. Exogens. — Seeds produce two equal original leaves ; stems 

 branched, often woody ; veins of leaves branching ; parts of flowers mostly 

 in fives or fours. Examples : all our trees and shrubs, most food-plants 

 except grains and onions, the paw-paw with its flowers in threes, the sal- 

 sify with onion-like leaves. 



The discrimination between Endogens and Exogens is the first step in 

 botanical knowledge. As our description of an unknown person always 

 begins with the sex, so the search for the unknown name of a flower 

 always begins with the question whether it be Endogen or Exoge?t. The 

 Exogens outnumber the Endogens more than four to one. The Endogens, 

 therefore, may be noted as exceptions. And, if you ever hope to be a bota- 

 nist, you should lose no time in learning the first step, — to recognize every 

 Endogen you see ; and, when you have mastered this problem, you will find 

 that here, as in so many other things, the first step is the hardest. 



S. Maloen, Mass. / P. Holton. 



