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THE GEOLOGIST, 



planet, it is equally as important to note whether plants have been 

 progressive in their development, as to determine this point in rela- 

 tion to the animal-kingdom. Rudimentary vegetables, like rudi- 

 mentary animals, are simple cells ; and at a glance everyone would 

 perceive the beautifal flowers in our gardens and greeneries to be far 

 more highly organized than the toad-stool sprouting around the 

 mouldering fence, or the leathery lichen clinging to the crumbling 

 wall. The same questions, too, will naturally be asked, " Were the 

 simplest plants created first ?" and " What was the first vegetation 

 that appeared on our earth ?" 



Here, then, we have need of a connected list of the vegetable 

 world, both in its present and past conditions, if we would rightly 

 comprehend even those facts which geologists have been able so far 

 to lay before us. Such a list, however, as one would desire is im- 

 practicable in the present state of knowledge, and we therefore content 

 ourselves with presenting one having a sufiiciently modified aspect 

 as to serve a useful purpose in our considerations of fossil plants. 



All plants are either simple cells, like the yeast-plant, or cellular, 

 that is, structurally composed of a simple aggregation of cells into a 

 cellular tissue, such as the gTeen scum-like Confervee of our ponds, 

 the incrusting lichens on our trees and walls, the Fungi, or mush- 

 room- and mildew-tribes, and the Algae, most familiarly known by 

 the cormnon seaweeds of our shores. Or they are vascular, i.e., 

 composed of a tissue containing numerous vessels for the circulation 

 of air, the conveyance of nutritive fliuds and other purposes. These 

 latter or vascular plants are again subdivided into Cetptogams, or 

 those having no visible seed-organs, and Phanerogams, or those 

 in which the flowers and seed-vessels are evident. 



To the Cryptogams belong the mosses, equiseta (mare's-tails), 

 ferns, and lycopodia or club-mosses ; and under the three great 

 divisions of the Phanerogams are ranged the flowering-plants and 

 trees. These divisions are constituted for the sub-grouping of 

 (1st) Those flowering-plants that have but one seed-lobe or cotyledon, 

 such as lilies, rushes, grasses, and palms, and which, from their growth 

 by increase from within are denominated Endocjens. 2nd, For those 

 with naked or unprotected seeds, such as the pine-apple and fir : these, 

 in allusion to this peculiarity, are called Qymnosperms. 3rd, For such 



