SERIES I. 



FLOWERING or PH^NOGAMOUS PLANTS: 



Those -which fructify by means of stamens and pistils, 

 and produce true seeds. 



Class I. DICOTYLEDONOUS or EXOGENOUS 

 PLANTS : Distinguished -by having the wood or woody 

 matter of the stem all in a circle between pith and bark, 

 and in yearly layers when the stem is more than one year 

 old : also the embryo with a pair of cotyledons or seed 

 leaves (or several in Pines, &c.). Generally known at once 

 by having netted-veined leaves. Parts of the flower seldom 

 in threes, most commonly in fives or fours. See Lessons, 

 p. 183. This class includes all our ordinary trees and 

 shrubs, and the greater part of our herbs. 



Subclass I. ANGIOSPERMOUS : including all of the 

 class which have their seeds in a pericarp, or their ovules in 

 a closed ovary, i. e. all except the Pine and Cycas families. 



I. POLYPETALOUS DIVISION. Includes the families which 

 have, at least in some species, both calyx and corolla, the latter 

 with their petals separate, i. e. not at all united into one body. Yet 

 some plants of almost all these families have apetalous flowers. 



1. RANUNCULACEiE, CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



Not perfectly distinguished by any one or two particular marks, 

 but may be known, on the whole, by having an acrid watery juice 

 (not milky or colored), numerous stamens, and usually more than 

 one pistil, all the parts of the flower separate from each other, and 

 inserted on the receptacle. The bulk of the seed is albumen, the 

 embryo being very small. The plants are herbs, or a few barely 

 shrubby. Many are cultivated for ornament. The following are 

 the common genera, with their chief distinctions. 



^ 1. Sepals valvate or with their edges turned inward in the bad. Petals none or 

 minute. Pistils many, 1-seeded, becoming akenes. Leaves opposite : the 

 plants mostly climbing by their leaf-stalks. 

 1. CLEMATIS. Sepals commonly 4, sometimes several, petal-like. Akenes 

 tipped with the persistent style or a part of it. 



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