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HOW PLANTS ARE CLASSIFIED, 
Subclass I. Angiosperms (or Angiospermous Plants ), which have pistils of 
the common sort, in which the seed is formed and contained (16, 219). This takes 
all of the first class except the Pine family, and one or two small orders little 
known in this country. These form the 
Subclass II. Gymnosperms, that is, Gymnospermous or Naked-seeded Plants 
(218, 250). Here the ovules and seeds are naked, there being no pistil at all, as 
in the Yew, or only an open scale that answers to it, as in Pines, Cedars, &c. 
312. The first class contains about a hundred common orders or natural fam- 
ilies ; the second not half so many. 
313. The lower or second series, that of Flowerless or Cryptogamous Plants, 
divides into three classes, viz. : — 
Class III. Acrogens, which includes the Fern family, the Horsetail family, 
and the Club-moss family. 
Class IV. Anophytes, which consists of the orders of Mosses and Liverworts. 
Class Y. Thallophytes, which includes Lichens, the Algm or Seaweeds, and 
the Fungi or Mushroom family. 
314. But Flowerless plants, being too difficult for the beginner, need not be 
further mentioned here. 
315. The orders or families in the natural system are pretty numerous. They 
are named, in general, after some well-known genus which may be said to repre- 
sent the family. Thus the order to which the Bose belongs is called the Rose 
family; that to which Crowfoots or Buttercups belong, the Crowfoot family; that 
to which Cress and Mustard belong, the Cress family ; the Oak gives its name to 
the Oak family ; the Birch to the Birch family ; the Pine to the Pine family, 
and so on. Their Latin or scientific names are also generally made from the 
Latin name of a leading well-known genus. For example, Rosa, the Bose, gives 
its name to the Bose family, viz., Rosacece, meaning Bosaceous plants ; Ranun- 
culus, the Crowfoot genus, gives to its family the name of Ranunculacece ; and 
Papaver, the Poppy, gives to its family that of Papaveracece ; Berberis, the Bar- 
berry, that of Berberidacece ; and so on. 
316. The student’s principal difficulty at the beginning will be to find out the 
order or family to which a plant belongs. This is because the orders are so numer- 
ous, and commonly not to be certainly distinguished by any one point. But after 
some practice, the order will be as easy to make out as the class ; and in many 
cases it will be known at a glance by the strong family likeness to some plant 
which has been examined before. 
