308 CLASSIFICATION AND DEStlRIPTION 



press the reseml^lances and differences among plants as we 

 find them in nature. 



On the whole, as we lia\-e said, these artificial systems 

 served to advance botanical knowledge; although after a 

 while tlie increasing number of them became a serious burden 

 to all who studied, jdants. Any system, it was thought, if 

 only used by all, ^\'(_)uld be much better than having to use 

 so many. 



At last a practical wa.y out of the increasing confusion was 

 found by the clear-sighted Linnaeus who came to the rescue 

 much as he had done in the matter of ]Dlant names. 



85. The Linnsean system. The great need for some system 

 which would be used by l)otanists in general, could, of course, 

 be met only by a classification that Avas more convenient 

 than any of those already jjroposed. Linnceus was the first 

 to see clearly that the necessarj^ convenience could not he 

 expected in his day from any attempt at a natural arrange- 

 ment, for the plants to be arranged wc^e as yet ver}' im- 

 pcrfectljr known. His predecessors had tried to produce a 

 natural classification on an artificial l)asis, with results that 

 were neither natural nor com,'enient. PIc aimed first of all 

 at convenience, and to this end adopted a franklv artificial 

 basis; yet in spite of this, as we shall see, his system proved 

 to be more natural in many ways than any previouslj' pro- 

 posed. 



In the Linn;ean system, tlie old division into herbs and 

 trees was entirely abandoned; all plants were divided into 

 twenty-four "classes," according to the presence, number, 

 or form of certain essential parts (pistils) of the flower; and 

 these classes were so grouped that all flowering plants were 

 separated from those which have no tru(> flowers. The 

 latter constituted Class 24, Cri/plogainin ' or cryptogams, 

 which includes all plants such as seaweeds, mushrooms, 

 mosses, and ferns, that are either destitute of parts such as 

 we find in flow(.'is, or if anything corresponding to such parts 

 are ]3resent they aw hidden from our unaided sight. The 

 other t«'('nty-three classes include all jilants in which floral 

 parts essential to the formation of seed, are manifest, — such 

 ' Cryp-to-ga'-mi;i < Lir. Liinjplox, hidden. 



