Outlines of botany : including a description of mosses, lichens, fungi, ferns, and seaweeds / by J. Scoffern ; illustrated with upwards of three hundred beautiful engravings.i.

John Scoffern

Date:: [1856 or 1857]

Credit: Outlines of botany : including a description of mosses, lichens, fungi, ferns, and seaweeds / by J. Scoffern ; illustrated with upwards of three hundred beautiful engravings.i. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$them, the exact counterpart of those little scales, which, when tightly compressed together, form the cup of the acorn. We are sure, then, that sufficient has been stated to make apparent to a reader the necessity of abandoning many common notions he may have previously entertained in relation to the similarities and dissimilaii- ties of vegetables, and the parts of which they are made up. § 2. ON THE SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION OF VEGETABLES. The observer who takes a survey of the various members of the vegetable world, becomes cognisant of at least one prominent distinction between them. He soon perceives that, whilst certain vegetables have flowers, others have not; or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, if the second division really possess flowers, they are imperceptible. This distinction was first laid hold of as a basis of classification by the celebrated Linnaeus, and to this extent the classification adopted by that great philosopher was strictly natural; beyond this, how^ever, it was altogether artificial, as we shall find hereafter. Now, taking advantage of this distinction, the great Swedish natu- ralist termed the evident flowering vegetables i:>lmnogamous, from the Greek work (baivojxai {phainomai), I appear ; or, phanerogamous^ from the Greek word (pavepSg {phane7-os), evident; and he designated the non- flowering, or more correctly speaking the non-evidently-flowering plants, by the word crgptogamic, from the Greek word KpvTr-og {kruptos'), con- cealed. The further classification of Linnseus was artificial, as we have already stated. The nature of this classification we cannot study with advantage just yet. Hereafter we shall proceed to explain the principles on which it was based, but this little book will not adopt the artificial sys- tem of Linnseus as a basis for teaching the science. In point of fact, the Linnean system may now bo considered as obsolete. In making this division of plants into evident-flowering and non-evident flowering, or phesnogamous and cryptogamic, the learner must take care not to fall into mistakes. He must greatly expand his common notions of a flower, and not restrict the appellation to those pretty floral ornaments which become objects of attraction, and of w'hich bouquets are made. On the contrary, he must admit to the right of being regarded as a flower any floral part, how'ever small, even though a lens should prove necessary for the discovery. Thus, in common language, w^e do not usually speak of the oak, and the ash, and the beech, elm, &c., as being flower-bearing treqs; they are, nevertheless; and consequently belong to the first grand division of evident-flower-hearing, or phienogamous or phanerogamous plants. In point of fact, the learner may remember as a rule, to which there are no exceptions, that every member of the vegetable world which bears a fruit, and consequently seeds, belongs to the phanerogamous$