CHAPTER XIX 



BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION AND ANALYSIS 



Reference was made in our introductory chapter to the object of 

 Systematic Botany as being the arrangement of plants in a system or 

 series which should indicate approximately the successive order of 

 their appearance in existence, that is, of their development, or of their 

 creation, as commonly expressed. The Cryptogams or flowerless 

 plants undoubtedly existed first, and from some one or more of their 

 sub-divisions the flowering plants developed. The former are therefore 

 regarded as "lower" than the latter, and are treated as the basal or 

 fundamental division of plants. Similarly, certain of their divisions 

 occupy the relation of having existed before others and of having given 

 origin to them, and are therefore regarded as occupying the lower 

 positions in the cryptogamic series. By determining those relations 

 for the various sub-divisions, we obtain grounds for arranging all the 

 cryptogams in a sequence of which it may be said, in general, that the 

 lower came first to exist and the latter are newer in creation. By apply- 

 ing the same methods, the Phanerogams are formed into a similar 

 series. 



It must not be understood that these groups occupy an unbroken 

 serial relation to one another, like the rounds of a ladder. They would 

 do so had each group given origin to only one other, and had all the 

 groups maintained their existence, or even left evidences of ha^•ing 

 existed, so that their relative positions could be assigned them. Instead 

 of this, a formerly existing group frequently, probably usually, gave 

 origin to several new forms, many of which became the starting points 

 for others, so that the system is more like that of the branching of a 

 tree than of a series of steps. Furthermore, it has frequently happened 

 that a recent form has continued in existence, while that from which 

 it originated has perished and left no record. So great an influence 

 have those conditions exerted that we have various groups now in exist- 

 ence, which show no special relationship to any other, and we have to 

 assign them somewhat arbitrarily to their positions. For these and 

 similar reasons, our system is at the best faulty and incomplete, and the 



