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CHAPTER XVII. 

 PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDO]\T. 



The Natural System of the Vegetable Kingdom. — Division of the Vege- 

 table Kingdom into Six Branches and Eighteen Classes. — The 

 Howerless Plants (Cryptogamia). — Sub-kingdom of the Thallns 

 Plants.— The Tangles, or Algse (Primary Algae, Green Algae, Brown 

 Algae, Red Algae.)— The Thread-plants, or Inophytes (Lichens and 

 Fungi.) — Sub-kingdom of the Prothallus Plants. — The Mosses, or 

 MuscinsB (Water-mosses, Liverworts, Leaf-mosses, Bog-mosses).— The 

 Ferns, or Filicinse (Leaf-ferns, Bamboo-ferns, Water-ferns, Scale- 

 ferns). — Sub-kingdom of Flowering Plants (Phanerogamia).— The 

 Gymnosperms, or Plants with Naked Seeds (Palm-ferns = Cycadeae ; 

 Pines = Coniferce.) — The Aiigiosperms, or Plants with Enclosed Seeds. 

 — Monocotylae. — Dicotylae.^Cup-blossoms (Apetalae). — Star-blossoms 

 (Diapetalae). — Bell-blossoms (Gamopetalae). 



Every attempt that we make to gain a knowledge of the 

 pedigree of any small or large group of organisms related 

 by blood must, in the first instance, start with the evi- 

 dence afforded by the existing " natural system " of this 

 group. For although the natural system of animals and 

 plants will never become finally settled, but will always 

 represent a merely approximate knowledge of true blood 

 relationship, still it will always possess great import- 

 ance as a hypothetical pedigree. It is true, by a " natural 

 system " most zoologists and botanists only endeavour to 

 express in a concise way the subjective conceptions which 



