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1892. | On the Classification of Metaphyta. 109 
the Protophyta and the Protozoa, or if one should apply names 
to indicate the physiological character upon which the groups 
are founded, the Agamophyta or sexless plants, and the Agam- 
0zoa or sexless animals. With such transitional forms as 
Ulothrix and some of the ciliated Infusoria the two higher 
groups of organisms are introduced and we may distinguish 
the sexual plants, Gamophyta, from the sexual animals, Gam- 
ozoa. This latter branch is almost equivalent to the Meta- 
zoa, but the Gamophyta as here limited constitute but a small 
portion of the organisms which are included as Metaphyta. 
It is precisely here that the great hiatus between our classifi- 
cation of plants and animals is to be discerned. To appre- 
ciate properly the true condition of things is perhaps more 
easy if we divide the Metazoa and Metaphyta, respectively, 
into two co-ordinate groups. This is a division of organisms, 
not of species, and can be performed, I think, without violence 
to right thinking. There may be distinguished, then, in the 
plant phylum the Sporophyta and the Gamophyta, and in 
the animal phylum the Sporozoa and Gamozoa. A sporophy- 
tic or sporozoic organism might be defined briefly as one that 
develops primarily from’ a segmentation-cell (fertilized egg, 
parthenogetic egg or vegetatively apogamous cell) and nor- 
mally forms in turn perfect reproductive cells or spores. In 
the plant phylum this group includes a most diverse and nu- 
merous series of organisms, from the four-zoospore-plant of 
Edogonium to the moss-capsule, the ferns, club-mosses, 
Pines, cycads, and all the herbs, shrubs and trees with which 
We are familiar. In the animal phylum, however, the Sporo- 
“0a would include only a very few and relatively insignificant 
organisms, chiefly among the Ccelenterata, and doubtfully 
extending a 
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