THE CRrPTOaAMIA OR TLOWBRLEaS PLANTS. 



125 



the Phsenogamia, one portion is devoted to the preservation of the in- 

 dividual, the other to the preservation of the species ; in other words, 

 the organs of vegetation and of reproduction become separate and dis- 

 tinct. 



622. Distinguished from Ph^nogamia. But the reproductive or- 

 gans, although distinct from the nutritive, are never seen combined into 

 flowers, nor producing seeds marked by the presence of an embryo. 

 Hence in the scale of rank the cryptogams are inferior to the flowering 

 plants and easily distinguished from them. 



623. Vegetative organs. 

 Again in the lower tribes, 

 viz., the seaweeds, Fungi and 

 Lichens, there is no distinc- 

 tion of root, stem and leaves ; 

 but the entire plant grows 

 into an expansion of substance 

 more or less uniform and in- 

 definite, called a thallus. But 

 the higher Hepaticse, mosses, 

 club-mosses,Equisitaceae, ferns 

 and marsileads, possess stems, 

 roots and leaves like the 

 Phsnogamia. 



502 503 504 



502, Equisetum arvense. 503, E. sylvaticum. 504. 

 Section of the spike. 505, A sporange. 506, A sporo 

 with its elators coiled. 



607, Lyoopodium dendroideum. 508, A 

 single spike. 509, a scale with its sporange 

 bursting. 610, Spores. 



624. Classes. The tribe last 

 mentioned are embraced in the class 

 Acrogens, so named by Lindley from 

 their manner of growth {d,Kp6v, point 

 or summit), lengthening into an axis. 

 The remaining three tribes first 

 named above constitute the lowest 

 class of the vegetable kingdom, called 

 Thallogens, and named from their 

 manner of growth. 



625. The stems op the marsi- 

 leads and ferns are mostly rhizomes, 

 but in tropical countries some species 

 of the latter arise on firm serial 

 trunks like palms. The club-mosses 

 have slender, woody stems much in- 

 clined to bifurcate. Those . of the 

 Equisetacese, Characese are jointed. 



