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VI. SKETCH OF A NEW DISTRIBUTION OF THE 

 VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



1. SOME remarks have already been made upon what ap- 

 pear to be the true principles of classification (635) ; and, how- 

 ever imperfect the attempt may be, this seems a proper place 

 to sketch out the way in which it may possibly be executed. 



2. In Exogens there are two totally different modes in 

 which the influence of the pollen is communicated to the seed. 

 The larger part of this primary group consists of plants pro- 

 vided with the apparatus called style and stigma, through 

 which the pollen-tubes are introduced into the ovary in the 

 act of fertilization. But others are so constructed that the 

 pollen falls immediately upon the ovules, without the intro- 

 duction of any intermediate apparatus ; a peculiarity analogous 

 to what occurs among reptiles in the Animal Kingdom : and, 

 as was to have been anticipated, the plants in which this sin- 

 gular habit occurs prove, upon being collected together, to 

 form a group having no direct affinity with those among which 

 they had been previously associated. Hence Exogens have 

 been broken up into 1. Exogens proper, or those having an 

 ovary, style, and stigma ; and 2. Gymnogens, which have neither. 



3. Among Endogens, in like manner, two modes of pro- 

 pagation have been discovered, essentially different from each 

 other. In the major part of them the result of the fertiliza- 

 tion of their seed is the production of an embryo, having one 

 point upon its surface predestined to become a stem, and an- 

 other to become a root ; besides which their elementary orga- 

 nization includes vascular tissue in abundance. But others, 

 although in a high state of developement, are wholly or nearly 

 destitute of vascular tissue; and when their seed is fertilized, 

 instead of an embryo being formed, the issue is a mass of 



