from seed and bear _flowers_,
essentially stamens and pistils, through the co-operation of which seed
is produced. For shortness, these are commonly called PHANEROGAMS, or
_Phaenogams_, or by the equivalent English name of FLOWERING PLANTS.[1]

CRYPTOGAMOUS PLANTS, or CRYPTOGAMS, come from minute bodies, which
answer to seeds, but are of much simpler structure, and such plants have
not stamens and pistils. Therefore they are called in English FLOWERLESS
PLANTS. Such are Ferns, Mosses, Algae or Seaweeds, Fungi, etc. These
sorts have each to be studied separately, for each class or order has a
plan of its own.

7. But Phanerogamous, or Flowering, Plants are all constructed on one
plan, or _type_. That is, taking almost any ordinary herb, shrub, or
tree for a pattern, it will exemplify the whole series: the parts of one
plant answer to the parts of any other, with only certain differences in
particulars. And the occupation and the delight of the scientific
botanist is in tracing out this common plan, in detecting the likenesses
under all the diversities, and in noting the meaning of these manifold
diversities. So the attentive study of any one plant, from its growth
out of the seed to the flowering and fruiting state and the production
of seed like to that from which the plant grew, would not only give a
correct general idea of the structure, growth, and characteristics of
Flowering Plants in general, but also serve as a pattern or standard of
comparison. Some plants will serve this purpose of a pattern much better
than others. A proper pattern will be one that is perfect in the sense
of having all the principal parts of a phanerogamous plant, and simple
and regular in having these parts free from complications or disguises.
The common Flax-plant may very well serve this purpose. Being an annual,
it has the advantage of being easily raised and carried in a short time
through its circle of existence, from seedling to fruit and seed.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The name is sometimes _Phanerogamous_, sometimes _Phaenogamous_
(_Phanerogams_, or _Phaenogams_), terms of the same meaning
etymologically; the former of preferable form, but the latter shorter.
The meaning of such terms is explained in the Glossary.

Section II. FLAX AS A PATTERN PLANT.

8. =Growth from the Seed.= Phanerogamous plants grow from seed, and
their flowers are destined to the production of seeds. A seed has a
rudimentary plant ready formed in it,--so