STUDIES OF SEED-PLANTS 213 



to all appreciation of the beautiful that he did not some- 

 times show interest in flowers? Perhaps you have; but 

 such persons are becoming rare. Study of flowers was once 

 thought to be a subject for girls, but in recent years it has 

 become more and more evident that appreciation of the beauty 

 in nature is just as valuable for men as for women. In many 

 colleges for men there are now courses in aesthetics, the science 

 of the beautiful. 



It is evident, then, that some outline study of flowers 

 belongs in applied biology; for besides the application of 

 such knowledge to the business of growing plants and of 

 producing new varieties mentioned above, an understanding 

 of the nature of flowers is useful to every cultured citizen 

 who has any aesthetical appreciation whatever. Flower 

 study is certainly applicable to our daily life, if we mean life 

 in the widest sense of the word. 



These comments on the importance of appreciating the 

 beauty of natural things have been suggested in connection 

 with flowers, because to most people flowers are the most 

 beautiful and remarkable of natural objects. However, in 

 many other structures of animals and plants there are things 

 which appeal to our sense of the beautiful (aesthetic sense), 

 and the student of biology should keep constantly on the 

 lookout for them. 



SEED-PLANTS WITHOUT TRUE FLOWERS 



209. Angiosperms and Gymnosperms. So far the de- 

 scriptions of plant reproductive organs have applied to the 

 flowers found among monocotyledons or dicotyledons. All 

 these have the seeds formed inside the closed ovaries of 

 flowers, and are classified in a great group called Angio- 

 sperms (meaning seed-vessel, i.e., ovary). In addition to such 

 seed-plants with closed ovary, there are several hundred 

 species of plants which form seeds, but which have the seeds 

 unprotected by an ovary. Such plants form a group known 



