SUB-KINGDOM II.--Flowerless Plants, or Cryptogamia
(_krĭp´ṯō̇-gā´mĭ-ȧ_).
(3) _Pteridophyta (tĕr-ĭ-dŏf´ĭ-ta)._
This group does not include over five thousand species altogether. All
its members have a well-marked differentiation into leaves and stems,
some with large leaves like the Bracken fern and some with small leaves
like the Club-moss. All are provided with well-differentiated wood and
phlœm, which are arranged in bundles in the stem. All the members, also,
have a well-marked alternation of generations, but it differs from that
of the bryophytes, for the leafy plant which is conspicuous is the
spore-producing generation, while the sexual generation is a very small
and inconspicuous little structure, as simple as an alga except for its
sexual organs. To this cohort belong all the ferns, all the Equisetums,
or Horsetails, and the Club-mosses and Selaginellas.
(4) _Bryophyta (brĭ-ŏfĭ´-tȧ)._
The _Bryophyta_ form a much smaller group, reported to have about
sixteen thousand species. Some of these appear, as do the mosses, to
have true leaves, but their apparent leaves are not really like those of
the higher plants. They have no true wood or vessels. They have a
definite alternation of generations, but the spore-producing generation
grows on to the “leafy” sexual generation, and is generally, but
wrongly, called its “fruit capsule.” To this group belong the Mosses and
Liverworts.
(5) _Thallophytes (thāl´ō-fitz)._
The _Thallophytes_ have the largest number of species after the
Angiosperms, and number about eighty thousand species all told. They are
all comparatively simple in structure and have no differentiation into
stems and roots. The Thallophytes include the algæ, the large fungi, the
toadstools, and all the parasitic and disease producing forms of plants.
ALGÆ are divided into FLORIDEÆ, the Red Seaweeds, and the orders
_Dictyoteæ_, _Oösporeæ_, _Zoösporeæ_, _Conjugatæ_, _Diatomaceæ_, and
_Cryptophyceæ_.
FUNGI include the molds, mildews, mushrooms, puffballs, etc., which are
variously grouped into several sub-classes and many orders. The
_Lichenes_ or Lichens are now considered to be of a mixed nature, each
plant partly a Fungus and partly an Alga.
=THREE CELEBRATED PICTURES OF ANIMAL FAVORITES=
[Illustration: =ORPHEUS AND HIS LUTE.= From the painting by J. C.
Dollman.]
[Illustration: =THE POLAR BEAR BEGS=]
[Illustration: =LION-MARMOSETS OF BRAZIL=]