PLANTS OP THK HIGHER GRADE. 



69 



'^.^ 





~;_ * 



blest Mosses or tlie minutest Moulds, spring from single cells or 

 spores (97), and not from true seeds. And the apparatus by -which 

 these spores are produced, whatever be its nature, is not a flower. 

 Plants of the lower grade (98, 

 99) ai-e therefore collectively- 

 denominated 

 113. Flowei-less or Cryptoga- 



mOUS Plants. The first name 

 expresses the fact that the or 

 gans of fructification in these 

 plants are not of the nature 

 of real fiowers. The second 

 name, which was introduced 

 by Linnaeus, and is composed 

 of two Greek words meaning 

 " concealed fructification," re- 

 fers to the obscure nature of 

 the organs or the processes of 

 reproduction in these plants, 

 which have only recently come 

 to be understood. Some ac- 

 count of them will be given 

 in Chapter XII. 



Sect. II. Plants of the Higher Grade ; their Develop- 

 ment FROM the Seed. 



114. Flowering or PhBenogamoUS Plants,* — so called in contradis- 

 tinction to the Flowerless or Cryptogamous, — is the general name 

 for the higher grade of plants, to which our ordinary herbs, slirubs, 

 and trees belong, and which may be said to exhibit the perfected type 

 of vegetation. The lower grade begins with plants so simple as to 



* Sometimes -written Phanerogamous. Both terms are made from the same 

 Greek words, and signify, by >•■ metaphorical expression, the counterpart of 

 Cryptogamous ; that is, that the essential organs of the flower are manifest or 

 conspicuous. 



FIG. 100. Sketch of a Tree Fern, Bicksonia arborescens, of St. Helena ; after Dr. J. D. 

 Hooker. 101. Polypodiuni vulgare, a common Fern, with its creeping stem or rootstock. 



