vely few kinds--belong all
firs, pines, yews, junipers, araucarias, and a most remarkable African
plant, _Welwitschia_, which has never more than two leaves, though these
attain enormous dimensions. All these plants are collectively spoken of
as conifers, or _Coniferae_. Besides these, certain curious southern
forms called Cycads are also associated in this section. To this
section, thus composed of conifers and cycads, the name GYMNOSPERMS is
given, from the naked mode of development of their young seeds. These
gymnosperms are also characterized by having such peculiar and
inconspicuous flowers that the ordinary observer would hardly apply that
term to denote their floral organs.

All the plants which yet remain to be noticed, and which belong to the
second and very much larger section of the PHANEROGAMIA are spoken of as
_Angiosperms_. Their seeds are, from their first appearance, in a very
different condition from those of gymnosperms, and their flowers are
generally conspicuous. To this group, therefore, belong all the familiar
ornamental plants of our gardens, and all the brightly coloured natural
ornaments of our fields, as well as a number of herbs and trees, the
flowers of which, though truly flowers, are not commonly recognized as
such.

This group of Angiospermous flowering plants is divided into a great
number of natural groups or "orders." Of these there are about 275, and
they are grouped in two sets or classes, which are separated one from
another, as we shall hereafter see, by differences as to their modes of
growth, the structure of their seeds, the numbers of the parts of their
flowers, and the course of the veins in their leaves.

First amongst the Angiospermous flowering plants may be mentioned the
grasses forming the order _Gramineae_, including under that term the
tree-like bamboos (of multitudinous uses), with the rice plant, and all
the grain-bearing herbs, all of which are grasses. Thus, with much
reason may it be said of man, that "all flesh is grass;" for with the
exception of the piscivorous Esquimaux, the exclusively flesh-eating
Gouchos, the population of Australia, and the people of the Molluccas
who nourish themselves on sago--which is the produce of a palm--with
these and a few more exceptions, the staple food of the human race is
one or another form of grass. It is, indeed, a remarkable fact that men
of such varied races so widely spread should have thus selected as their
food objects