Angiosperm

“ V. Genus; VI. Species.
To illustrate: The white pine belongs to the highest great division (sub-kingdom) of the plant kingdom. The plants of this division all produce seeds, and hence are called “spermaphytes” (“seed plants”) . They may be divided into two groups (classes) , distinguished by certain peculiarities in the flowers and seeds. These are named respectively “gymnosperms” and “angiosperms,” and to the first our plant belongs. The gymnosperms may be further divided into several subordinate groups (orders) , one of which, the conifers, or cone-bearing evergreens, includes our plant. ”

“ The Angiosperms are the Flowering Plants, par excellence, and form, beyond comparison, the dominant sub-kingdom in the flora of our own age, including, apart from a few Conifers and Ferns, all the most familiar plants of our fields and gardens, and practically all plants of service to man. ”

“ All other flowering plants always bear their ovules in an ovary and, because of this fact, are called angiosperms, literally angeion, a vessel, and sperma, seed. These inclosed seeded plants comprise the great bulk of the vegetation of the earth to-day. ”

“ The first certain and undoubted fossils of plants with enclosed seeds are found in the strata of the chalk system, and indeed we here find, side by side, remains of the two classes into which the main class of Angiosperms is generally divided, namely, the one seed-lobed plants, or monocotylæ, and the two seed-lobed plants, or dicotylæ. ”

“ In the earlier days of the science of botany nearly every botanist’s energies were devoted to this branch which we now call systematic botany. There are now named and described close on a quarter of a million of living species of plants altogether, including the lower and often nearly invisible forms, and of this vast number about one hundred and thirty thousand belong to the highest group of all—the Angiosperms. ”

“ When the pistil has reached a certain stage in growth it becomes ready for fertilization. Pollination having been effected, and the pollen-grain having reached the stigma in angiosperms, or the summit of the nucellus in gymnosperms, it is detained there, and the viscid secretion from the Fertilization. glands of the stigma in the former case, or from the nucellus in the latter, induce the protrusion of the intine as a pollen-tube through the pores of the grain. ”

“ Straightforward and interesting reading, and to those who begin to desire more knowledge of their plant life, highly to be recommended is this Story of the Plants, by Grant Allen. For surely if you love your flowers it will not be from your own more or less selfish point of view that you will regard them. Their aims and objects will interest you; their growth and evolution be of importance; and, to come round again to one's own advantage, what [Pg 170] is best for them must also be best for the garden, since flowers in their full beauty is the gardener's object, and the plants' too. ”

“ It deserves as much attention as any plant in cultivation, and yet how rarely is any thorough preparation made for its perfect development. What is there growing in garden or in wild more nobly distinct and beautiful than the great silvery plumes of this plant waving in the autumnal gusts—the burial plumes as it were of our summer too early dead? What tender plant so effective as this in giving a new aspect of vegetation to our gardens, if it be tastefully placed and well grown? ”

“ Almost within reach of our hand we easily count a dozen varieties of blossoms, while at the back of the little field are masses of a tall plant gone to seed. This departed bloom must have resembled our elder in shape and size, and now it makes a wonderful display of seeds in all shades of green, yellow, and golden brown, according to the various degrees of ripeness. It is very effective, almost more beautiful than blossoms, certainly more harmonious. ”

“ Trees then grow and come into being in the above-mentioned ways; for as to methods of grafting [12] and inoculation, these are, as it were, combinations of different kinds of trees; or at all events these are methods of growth of a quite different class and must be treated of at a later stage.
II. Of under-shrubs and herbaceous plants the greater part grow from seed or a root, and some in both ways; some of them also grow from cuttings, as has been said, [13] while roses and lilies grow from pieces of the stems, as also does dog's-tooth grass. ”

“ The types that lay latent in the oldest vegetation have simply been separated and perfected; progressive development has been gradually led along a series of intricate but constantly diverging lines that lead out and up, and finally terminate in the endless graded ranks and profuse varieties which constitute the grand flora—the grandest the world has ever seen—that annually buds and blooms, and bears its wealth of leaf and fruit for you and me, provided only we appreciate it all. ”

“ You see, plants are a [222] good deal like ourselves, and live much in the same way. Some leaves have only one strong rib through the center—a sort of a backbone. Some have as many as six or seven."
They talked about these things, and looked at the different leaves and stems. Then they spoke of the stalks of different plants, and the Chief Gardener explained how the tender stalk of the lowliest plant, that of the tall twining vine, and the trunk of the giant oak, were all one and the same, only different in kind. Each came at some time from a tiny seed. ”

“ When one takes up a plant his attention is naturally first drawn to its general appearance and structure, whether it is a complicated one like one of the flowering plants, or some humbler member of the vegetable kingdom,—a moss, seaweed, toadstool,—or even some still simpler plant like a mould, or the apparently structureless green scum that floats on a stagnant pond. ”

“ The latter, when duly fertilized by being brought into contact with the "pollen" of the stamens, become "seeds," and are capable of growing up, when planted, into new plants. Now, the botanist will inform us that it is a matter of common experience to find some individual plants of a species with well-developed petals or blossoms, and other individuals of the same species with petals in a rudimentary condition, thus proving that the production of imperfect parts in flowers occurs as an ordinary event under our own eyes, and under the common conditions of plant-life. ”

“ The fact of outstanding importance to everyone who really looks at most plants is that part of them are above ground and part below. This simple observation carries with it the recognition of a fundamental difference of plant structure, namely roots and stem. Most plants bear obvious leaves, and at some time in their life flowers, inevitably followed by fruits and seeds. The ideally perfect plant would consist, then, of root, stem, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seed. ”

“ The most prominent of these parts are root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, and seed. Familiar plants differ wonderfully in size and shape,—from fragile mushrooms, delicate waterweeds and pond-scums, to floating leaves, soft grasses, coarse weeds, tall bushes, slender climbers, gigantic trees, and hanging moss.
The Stem Part.—In most plants there is a main central part or shaft on which the other or secondary parts are borne. This main part is the plant axis. Above ground, in most plants, the main plant axis bears the branches, leaves, and flowers; below ground, it bears the roots. ”

“ When you study the botany that is written for older people, you will find that plants are set apart in separate groups, according to the number of their seed leaves.
Strange though it may seem to you, plants with but one seed leaf have certain habits that you will not find in a plant with two seed leaves; and a plant with two seed leaves, long after these have passed away, will show by root and stem that it had more than one seed leaf. ”

“ The flowers and leaves are usually in pairs, the seed-vessels on the tips of slender stems, curving around and toward each other, as if the plant were stretching out its little hands, and opening its little blossoms only in bright weather and closing them at night. ”

“ The Deviations, as they may be called, from the assumed type or pattern of flower are most various and extensive. The differences between one species and another of the same genus are comparatively insignificant; those between different genera are more striking; those between different families and classes of plants more and more profound. They represent different adaptations to conditions or modes of life, some of which have obvious or probable utilities, although others are beyond particular explanation. The principal modifications may be conveniently classified. ”

“ Most of the seeds are ripe and away, those of the trees mottling the sunny air, glinting, glancing through the midst of the merry insect people, rocks and trees, everything alike drenched in gold light, heaven’s colors coming down to the meadows and groves, making every leaf a romance, air, earth, and water in peace beyond thought, the great brooding days opening and closing in divine psalms of color. ”

“ The name plant belongs in a general way to all vegetation, from the tiniest spear of grass or creeping flower one sees on the rocks by the brook-side, to the largest and tallest of forest trees.
Plants are divided into numerous groups of families, and the study of the many species belonging to each family, is very interesting.
There are thousands of kinds of grasses, shrubs, and trees, scattered over the different parts of the earth, and the larger portion of them are in some way useful to mankind. ”

“ They never grow into branches, but detach themselves when full grown, fall to the ground, and take root there to form new plants.
Fig. 110. Bulblets in the axils of leaves of a Tiger Lily.
117. Consolidated Vegetation. An ordinary herb, shrub, or tree is evidently constructed on the plan developing an extensive surface. In fleshy rootstocks, tubers, corms, and bulbs, the more enduring portion of the plant is concentrated, and reduced for the time of struggle (as against drought, heat, or cold) to a small amount of exposed surface, and this mostly sheltered in the soil. ”

“ The matured seed, with embryo ready to germinate and reproduce the kind, completes the cycle of the vegetable life in a phanerogamous plant, the account of which began with the seed and seedling.
Section XVI. VEGETABLE LIFE AND WORK.
393. The following simple outlines of the anatomy and physiology of plants (3) are added to the preceding structural part for the better preparation of students in descriptive and systematic botany; also to give to all learners some general idea of the life, growth, intimate structure, and action of the beings which compose so large a part of organic nature. ”

“ This well established feeling of the growth from the ground upward of the trunks of the trees and the springing from the branches outward of the foliage, this complete and harmonious development of the whole structure from the seed, as it were, is the product of an exhaustive study, in all of its stages, of the life and characteristics of the tree itself. ”

“ The fact that the largest tree and the smallest herb are alike made up of a greater or less number of these plant-members, as they are termed, leads naturally to the thought that any mass of plant-tissue having a root, a stem, and a leaf, may be a plant individual, and that, when a number of these members are intimately associated together, a community of plant individuals is formed. ”

“ The flower-stem is more than 2 ft. high, and very much branched; the branches commencing at from 4 ins. to 8 ins. above the ground, and forming a large and exceedingly handsome panicle of flowers of a light-blue colour, tinged with the greyish hue of the numerous membranous bracts and thin dry calyces. A well-drained, sandy soil, in an open sunny position, is the best for this plant, which, however, grows in any ordinary garden-soil, and is admirably adapted for naturalisation or grouping with the acanthuses, tritomas, etc., the effect of the inflorescence being very remarkable. ”

“ Next to the floral orchids, the mechanism of our milkweed blossom is perhaps the most complex and remarkable, and illustrates as perfectly as any of the orchid examples given in Darwin's noble work the absolute divine intention of the dependence of a plant species upon the visits of an insect. ”

“ When shot about one inch, turn them out, and carefully shake them clear of earth; and if required, divide the crowns, and put them in as small pots as possible, taking care not to break any of the strong fleshy roots. (For Soil, see Table.) To flower these plants well, they require to be frequently shifted, during their active stage of growth, which must be duly observed. The most of the species of this genus will more than repay the attention, by their abundantly and beautifully spotted flowers. ”

“ Perhaps there is no feature of plant life that shows such an amazing amount of variation as the forms of flowers, and while only a few of the simplest deviations from the normal have been discussed here, it must not be forgotten that this infinite variety is a reflection of the ingeniousness of nature in securing a plentiful supply of seed. ”

“ Then the plant has no stem, or an underground one. But if the three leaves rise above the ground, as in Fig. 17, they must reach their roots by elongating their stalks, and this elongation is the stem of the plant. If the outside leaves grow last, and are therefore youngest, the plant is said to grow from the outside. You know that 'ex' means out, and that 'gen' is the first syllable of Genesis (or creation) , therefore the old botanists, putting an o between the two syllables, called plants whose outside leaves grew last, Ex-o-gens. ”