ACADEMIC BOTANY. 

 D. Chemistry, whicli treats of the elements of whioli they are com- 



Section II. Systematic Botany. — This concerns the study of different 

 plants in their relations to one another. Its divisions are : 



A. Taxonomy (Classification), which places plants in groups ; 



B. Phytology (Descriptive Botany) , which gives the diagnosis or dis- 

 tinctive features of these groups and of their individual members. 



12. Sex. Marriage of Flowers. Series. — Though System- 

 atic Botany is comparatively a new science, the fact upon 

 which it is based, that flowers, like animals, are male and 

 female, has been known from the earliest dates of history. 

 Herodotus (480 B.C.) tells of the female palm-trees so 

 carefully tended by the Babylonians, who brought flowers 

 from the male trees in the distant forests, and pollinated 

 the flowers of the female trees, which otherwise would 

 have remained barren. Empedocles (440 B.C.) called seeds 

 the eggs of plants, — a term still retained by botanists. A 

 great revival in botanical research took place in the seven- 

 teenth century of the Christian era ; and the marriage of 

 flowers was declared as a creed in the names given to the 

 Thoo Series into which plants are naturally separated, viz. : 



Series I. Crjrptogamia, or Hidden Marriage (Gr. krupto, 

 I hide, gamos, marriage) : Plants "with rudimentary flowers 

 which are usually microscopic, and which produce spores. 

 Seaweeds and ferns are examples. 



Series II. Phanerogamia, or Visible Marriage (Gr. phan- 

 eros, visible) : Plants with developed and usually visible 

 flowers, which produce seeds. The Pine-tree, Wheat, and 

 Apple are examples. 



