Elements of Botany and Vegetable Physiology, Tr. from the Fourth Ed. by W. Macgillivray (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1831. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... A TABLE FAMILIES OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE METHOD OF ANTOINE LAURENT DE JTJSSIEU. FIRST DIVISION. INEMBRYONATE PLANTS. This first division of the vegetable kingdom corresponds to the class Cryptogamia of Linnaeus. It contains all the plants which, being destitute of true organs of generation, in other words, of stamina and pistils, have received the name of Agamous Plants, and are reproduced by means of corpuscules, in their structure and development resembling the bulbils which are observed on certain phanerogamous plants. Linnaeus called these plants cryptogamous, because he imagined their fecundation to be effected by means of organs which were little known. M. De Candolle, observing that only a single anatomical element, the cellular tissue, enters into their composition, names them Cellular plants, in opposition to the name Vascular plants, which he gives to the phanerogamous species. We think they ought to retain the name of Agamous plants which Necker gave them, because, as we shall presently shew, they are really We shall here present some general considerations respecting the organization of the inembryonate plants, as they possess peculiarities which we had no opportunity of describing in the preceding part of the work. destitute of organs of generation, or, at least, their organs of reproduction have a structure entirely different from that of the same parts in phanerogamous plants. Thus, we comprehend under the name of Agamous Plants all the acotyledonous plants of Jussieu, that is to say, all those which were referred by Linnaeus to Cryptogamia, the last class of his system. Several authors have divided them into two classes: Cryptogamous Plants, and Agamous Plants properly so called, To the former they refer the Sa...