508 



CLASS II. ENDOGENS. 



684. The number of orders belonging to this division of the 

 Phanerogamia is much less than that of the Exogenous class ; 

 and many of these are of little importance to Man. There is one, 

 however, which surpasses all others in the benefits, direct and 

 indirect, which the human race derives from it. This is not, as 

 might be imagined, an order consisting of lofty trees, whose stems 

 and branches afford valuable timber, whose fruits serve as whole- 

 some and nutritious food, and whose juices possess properties that 

 render them valuable as medicines ; but a tribe containing few 

 save humble and apparently insignificant plants, undistinguished 

 either by the beauty of their flowers, the fragrance of their 

 odours, or the delicacy of their leaves ; and having nothing in 

 their general aspect, which could afford the slightest indication 

 of their value. This order is that of the Grasses, which affords 

 to Man his entire supply of the most nutritious of all vegetable 

 substances, and on which are almost entirely supported the 

 domestic animals which he rears for the food they yield, and for 

 the other valuable products derived from them. We shall here- 

 after find, that this order ranks very low in the scale, considered 

 in regard to its structure alone ; and it is interesting to observe, 

 in this as in so many other instances, the apparently insignificant 

 means which the All- Wise Creator employs to effect objects of 

 the greatest magnitude. It will be remembered that, in the 

 class of ENDOGENS, the parts of the flower are generally arranged 

 in threes, not in fours or fives. 



685. The first order to be noticed is a small one, containing 

 the British aquatic plants named Frog-bit (Hydrocharis) and 

 Water Soldier (Stratiotes), as well as many foreign species, espe- 

 cially in North America where it is most common ; the first- 

 named of these plants may be regarded as the type of the group, 

 it is named after it HYDROCHARIDE^. The Frog-lit, (some- 

 times formerly called the lesser Water-lily, from its supposed 

 resemblance to the plants of the order Nymphacese,) is common 



