BOTANA 
WHILE plants, in their external appearance, present every 
variety of size, shape, and color, their internal structure 
does not offer the same amount of difference as is observed 
in the divisions of the animal kingdom. The old dogma 
that plants live, but animals live and feel, still holds true; 
there not having been found in the vegetal kingdom a trace 
of a nervous system. Some other basis for the classifica- 
tion of plants must therefore be chosen. More than a 
century ago, Linnaeus divided the vegetal kingdom into 
Cryptogamia and Phanerogamia, which may, for the pres- 
ent, be translated Flowerless and Flowering plants. Modern 
science has offered nothing better than the classification of 
Linnaeus, it being a natural one. The Flowerless plants, 
or the Cryptogamia, include: rst, the Alga, or the greenish 
matter covering bricks, stones, etc., the green thread-plants 
of ponds and ditches, and the red and black sea-weed; 2d, 
the Fungi, or toadstools, mushrooms, etc.; 3d, the Lichens, 
or the parchment-like growths seen covering fence-rails, 
etc.; 4th, the Mosses; 5th, the Ferns. The Flowering plants, 
or Phanerogamia, are represented by: ist, the Cycade, 
bread ferns, etc.; 2d, the Coniferz, pine, cypress; 3d, the 
Monocotyledons (one-seed lobe), lily, banana, palm; 4th, 
the Dicotyledons (two-seed lobes), elms, mulberry, gera- 
nium, rose. The first three classes of the Cryptogamia 
differ from the Phanerogamia in the absence of flowers, 
and in wanting roots, stem, and leaves; the Mosses and 
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