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, Algæ 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 _Phænogamous_ (_Phanerogams_, or _Phænogams_), 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,--sometimes with the two most essential parts, i. e. stem and leaf, plainly discernible; sometimes with no obvious distinction of organs until germination begins. This incipient plant is called an EMBRYO.