The last and highest great division of the vegetable kingdom has been named Spermaphyta, “seed plants,” from the fact that the structures known as seeds are peculiar to them. They are also commonly called flowering plants, though this name might be also appropriately given to certain of the higher pteridophytes.

In the seed plants the macrosporangia remain attached to the parent plant, in nearly all cases, until the archegonia are fertilized and the embryo plant formed. The outer walls of the sporangium now become hard, and the whole falls off as a seed.

In the higher spermaphytes the spore-bearing leaves (sporophylls) become much modified, and receive special names, those bearing the microspores being commonly known as stamens; those bearing the macrospores, carpels or carpophylls. The macrosporangia are also ordinarily known as “ovules,” a name given before it was known that these were the same as the macrosporangia of the higher pteridophytes.

In addition to the spore-bearing leaves, those surrounding them may be much changed in form and brilliantly colored, forming, with the enclosed sporophylls, the “flower” of the higher spermaphytes.

As might be expected, the tissues of the higher spermaphytes are the most highly developed of all plants, though some of them are very simple. The plants vary extremely in size, the smallest being little floating plants, less than a millimetre in diameter, while others are gigantic trees, a hundred metres and more in height.

There are two classes of the spermaphytes: I., the Gymnosperms, or naked-seeded ones, in which the ovules (macrosporangia) are borne upon open carpophylls; and II., Angiosperms, covered-seeded plants, in which the carpophylls form a closed cavity (ovary) containing the ovules.

Class I.—Gymnosperms (GymnospermÆ).

The most familiar of these plants are the common evergreen trees (conifers), pines, spruces, cedars, etc. A careful study of one of these will give a good idea of the most important characteristics of the class, and one of the best for this purpose is the Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris), which, though a native of Europe, is not infrequently met with in cultivation in America. If this species cannot be had by the student, other pines, or indeed almost any other conifer, will answer. The Scotch pine is a tree of moderate size, symmetrical in growth when young, with a central main shaft, and circles of branches at regular intervals; but as it grows older its growth becomes irregular, and the crown is divided into several main branches.[10] The trunk and branches are covered with a rough, scaly bark of a reddish brown color, where it is exposed by the scaling off of the outer layers. Covering the younger branches, but becoming thinner on the older ones, are numerous needle-shaped leaves. These are in pairs, and the base of each pair is surrounded by several dry, blackish scales. Each pair of leaves is really attached to a very short side branch, but this is so short as to make the leaves appear to grow directly from the main branch. Each leaf is about ten centimetres in length and two millimetres broad. Where the leaves are in contact they are flattened, but the outer side is rounded, so that a cross-section is nearly semicircular in outline. With a lens it is seen that there are five longitudinal lines upon the surface of the leaf, and careful examination shows rows of small dots corresponding to these. These dots are the breathing pores. If a cross-section is even slightly magnified it shows three distinct parts,—a whitish outer border, a bright green zone, and a central oval, colorless area, in which, with a little care, may be seen the sections of two fibro-vascular bundles. In the green zone are sometimes to be seen colorless spots, sections of resin ducts, containing the resin so characteristic of the tissues of the conifers.

The general structure of the stem may be understood by making a series of cross-sections through branches of different ages. In all, three regions are distinguishable; viz., an outer region (bark or cortex) (Fig.76, A, c), composed in part of green cells, and, if the section has been made with a sharp knife, showing a circle of little openings, from each of which oozes a clear drop of resin. These are large resin ducts (r). The centre is occupied by a soft white tissue (pith), and the space between the pith and bark is filled by a mass of woody tissue. Traversing the wood are numerous radiating lines, some of which run from the bark to the pith, others only part way. These are called the medullary rays. While in sections from branches of any age these three regions are recognizable, their relative size varies extremely. In a section of a twig of the present year the bark and pith make up a considerable part of the section; but as older branches are examined, we find a rapid increase in the quantity of wood, while the thickness of the bark increases but slowly, and the pith scarcely at all. In the wood, too, each year’s growth is marked by a distinct ring (A i, ii). As the branches grow in diameter the outer bark becomes split and irregular, and portions die, becoming brown and hard.

The tree has a very perfect root system, but different from that of any pteridophytes. The first root of the embryo persists as the main or “tap” root of the full-grown tree, and from it branch off the secondary roots, which in turn give rise to others.

The sporangia are borne on special scale-like leaves, and arranged very much as in certain pteridophytes, notably the club mosses; but instead of large and small spores being produced near together, the two kinds are borne on special branches, or even on distinct trees (e.g. red cedar). In the Scotch pine the microspores are ripe about the end of May. The leaves bearing them are aggregated in small cones (“flowers”), crowded about the base of a growing shoot terminating the branches (Fig.77, A ). The individual leaves (sporophylls) are nearly triangular in shape, and attached by the smaller end. On the lower side of each are borne two sporangia (pollen sacs) (C, sp.), opening by a longitudinal slit, and filled with innumerable yellow microspores (pollen spores), which fall out as a shower of yellow dust if the branch is shaken.

The macrosporangia (ovules) are borne on similar leaves, known as carpels, and, like the pollen sacs, borne in pairs, but on the upper side of the sporophyll instead of the lower. The female flowers appear when the pollen is ripe. The leaves of which they are composed are thicker than those of the male flowers, and of a pinkish color. At the base on the upper side are borne the two ovules (macrosporangia) (Fig.77, E, o), and running through the centre is a ridge that ends in a little spine or point.

The ovule-bearing leaf has on the back a scale with fringed edge (F, sc.), quite conspicuous when the flower is young, but scarcely to be detected in the older cone. From the female flower is developed the cone (Fig.75, A), but the process is a slow one, occupying two years. Shortly after the pollen is shed, the female flowers, which are at first upright, bend downward, and assume a brownish color, growing considerably in size for a short time, and then ceasing to grow for several months.

In Figure75, B, is shown such a flower as it appears in the winter and early spring following. The leaves are thick and fleshy, closely pressed together, as is seen by dividing the flower lengthwise, and each leaf ends in a long point (D). The ovules are still very small. As the growth of the tree is resumed in the spring, the flower (cone) increases rapidly in size and becomes decidedly green in color, the ovules increasing also very much in size. If a scale from such a cone is examined about the first of June, the ovules will probably be nearly full-grown, oval, whitish bodies two to three millimetres in length. A careful longitudinal section of the scale through the ovule will show the general structure. Such a section is shown in Figure77, G. Comparing this with the sporangia of the pteridophytes, the first difference that strikes us is the presence of an outer coat or integument (in.), which is absent in the latter. The single macrospore (sp.) is very large and does not lie free in the cavity of the sporangium, but is in close contact with its wall. It is filled with a colorless tissue, the prothallium, and if mature, with care it is possible to see, even with a hand lens, two or more denser oval bodies (ar.), the egg cells of the archegonia, which here are very large. The integument is not entirely closed at the top, but leaves a little opening through which the pollen spores entered when the flower was first formed.

After the archegonia are fertilized the outer parts of the ovule become hard and brown, and serve to protect the embryo plant, which reaches a considerable size before the sporangium falls off. As the walls of the ovule harden, the carpel or leaf bearing it undergoes a similar change, becoming extremely hard and woody, and as each one ends in a sharp spine, and they are tightly packed together, it is almost impossible to separate them. The ripe cone (Fig.75, A) remains closed during the winter, but in the spring, about the time the flowers are mature, the scales open spontaneously and discharge the ripened ovules, now called seeds. Each seed (E, s) is surrounded by a membranous envelope derived from the scale to which it is attached, which becomes easily separated from the seed. The opening of the cones is caused by drying, and if a number of ripe cones are gathered in the winter or early spring, and allowed to dry in an ordinary room, they will in a day or two open, often with a sharp, crackling sound, and scatter the ripe seeds.

A section of a ripe seed (F) shows the embryo (em.) surrounded by a dense, white, starch-bearing tissue derived from the prothallium cells, and called the “endosperm.” This fills up the whole seed which is surrounded by the hardened shell derived from the integument and wall of the ovule. The embryo is elongated with a circle of small leaves at the end away from the opening of the ovule toward which is directed the root of the embryo.

The seed may remain unchanged for months, or even years, without losing its vitality, but if the proper conditions are provided, the embryo will develop into a new plant. To follow the further growth of the embryo, the ripe seeds should be planted in good soil and kept moderately warm and moist. At the end of a week or two some of the seeds will probably have sprouted. The seed absorbs water, and the protoplasm of the embryo renews its activity, beginning to feed upon the nourishing substances in the cells of the endosperm. The embryo rapidly increases in length, and the root pushes out of the seed growing rapidly downward and fastening itself in the soil (G, r). Cutting the seed lengthwise we find that the leaves have increased much in length and become green (one of the few cases where chlorophyll is formed in the absence of light). As these leaves (called “cotyledons” or seed leaves) increase in length, they gradually withdraw from the seed whose contents they have exhausted, and the young plant enters upon an independent existence.

The young plant has a circle of leaves, about six in number, surrounding a bud which is the growing point of the stem, and in many conifers persists as long as the stem grows (Fig.75, K, b). A cross-section of the young stem shows about six separate fibro-vascular bundles arranged in a circle (S, fb.). The root shows a central fibro-vascular cylinder surrounded by a dark-colored ground tissue. Growing from its surface are numerous root hairs (Fig.75, M).

For examining the microscopic structure of the pine, fresh material is for most purposes to be preferred, but alcoholic material will answer, and as the alcohol hardens the resin, it is for that reason preferable.

Cross-sections of the leaf, when sufficiently magnified, show that the outer colorless border of the section is composed of two parts: the epidermis of a single row of regular cells with very thick outer walls, and irregular groups of cells lying below them. These latter have thick walls appearing silvery and clearer than the epidermal cells. They vary a good deal, in some leaves being reduced to a single row, in others forming very conspicuous groups of some size. The green tissue of the leaf is much more compact than in the fern we examined, and the cells are more nearly round and the intercellular spaces smaller. The chloroplasts are numerous and nearly round in shape.

Scattered through the green tissue are several resin passages (r), each surrounded by a circle of colorless, thick-walled cells, like those under the epidermis. At intervals in the latter are openings—breathing pores—(Fig.76, J), below each of which is an intercellular space (i). They are in structure like those of the ferns, but the walls of the guard cells are much thickened like the other epidermal cells.

Each leaf is traversed by two fibro-vascular bundles of entirely different structure from those of the ferns. Each is divided into two nearly equal parts, the wood (x) lying toward the inner, flat side of the leaf, the bast (T) toward the outer, convex side. This type of bundle, called “collateral,” is the common form found in the stems and leaves of seed plants. The cells of the wood or xylem are rather larger than those of the bast or phloem, and have thicker walls than any of the phloem cells, except the outermost ones which are thick-walled fibres like those under the epidermis. Lying between the bundles are comparatively large colorless cells, and surrounding the whole central area is a single line of cells that separates it sharply from the surrounding green tissue.

In longitudinal sections, the cells, except of the mesophyll (green tissue) are much elongated. The mesophyll cells, however, are short and the intercellular spaces much more evident than in the cross-section. The colorless cells have frequently rounded depressions or pits upon their walls, and in the fibro-vascular bundle the difference between the two portions becomes more obvious. The wood is distinguished by the presence of vessels with close, spiral or ring-shaped thickenings, while in the phloem are found sieve tubes, not unlike those in the ferns.

The fibro-vascular bundles of the stem of the seedling plant show a structure quite similar to that of the leaf, but very soon a difference is manifested. Between the two parts of the bundle the cells continue to divide and add constantly to the size of the bundle, and at the same time the bundles become connected by a line of similar growing cells, so that very early we find a ring of growing cells extending completely around the stem. As the cells in this ring increase in number, owing to their rapid division, those on the borders of the ring lose the power of dividing, and gradually assume the character of the cells on which they border (Fig.76, B, cam.). The growth on the inside of the ring is more rapid than on the outer border, and the ring continues comparatively near the surface of the stem (Fig.76, A, cam.). The spaces between the bundles do not increase materially in breadth, and as the bundles increase in size become in comparison very small, appearing in older stems as mere lines between the solid masses of wood that make up the inner portion of the bundles. These are the primary medullary rays, and connect the pith in the centre of the stem with the bark. Later, similar plates of cells are formed, often only a single cell thick, and appearing when seen in cross-section as a single row of elongated cells (C, m).

As the stem increases in diameter the bundles become broader and broader toward the outside, and taper to a point toward the centre, appearing wedge-shaped, the inner ends projecting into the pith. The outer limits of the bundles are not nearly so distinct, and it is not easy to tell when the phloem of the bundles ends and the ground tissue of the bark begins.

A careful examination of a cross-section of the bark shows first, if taken from a branch not more than two or three years old, the epidermis composed of cells not unlike those of the leaf, but whose walls are usually browner. Underneath are cells with brownish walls, and often more or less dry and dead. These cells give the brown color to the bark, and later both epidermis and outer ground tissue become entirely dead and disappear. The bulk of the ground tissue is made up of rather large, loose cells, the outer ones containing a good deal of chlorophyll. Here and there are large resin ducts (Fig.76, H), appearing in cross-section as oval openings surrounded by several concentric rows of cells, the innermost smaller and with denser contents. These secrete the resin that fills the duct and oozes out when the stem is cut. All of the cells of the bark contain more or less starch.

The phloem, when strongly magnified, is seen to be made up of cells arranged in nearly regular radiating rows. Their walls are not very thick and the cells are usually somewhat flattened in a radial direction.

Some of the cells are larger than the others, and these are found to be, when examined in longitudinal section, sieve tubes (Fig.76, E) with numerous lateral sieve plates quite similar to those found in the stems of ferns.

The growing tissue (cambium), separating the phloem from the wood, is made up of cells quite like those of the phloem, into which they insensibly merge, except that their walls are much thinner, as is always the case with rapidly growing cells. These cells (B, cam.) are arranged in radial rows and divide, mainly by walls, at right angles to the radii of the stem. If we examine the inner side of the ring, the change the cells undergo is more marked. They become of nearly equal diameter in all directions, and the walls become woody, showing at the same time distinct stratification (B, x).

On examining the xylem, where two growth rings are in contact, the reason of the sharply marked line seen when the stem is examined with the naked eye is obvious. On the inner side of this line (I), the wood cells are comparatively small and much flattened, while the walls are quite as heavy as those of the much larger cells (II) lying on the outer side of the line. The small cells show the point where growth ceased at the end of the season, the cells becoming smaller as growth was feebler. The following year when growth commenced again, the first wood cells formed by the cambium were much larger, as growth is most vigorous at this time, and the wood formed of these larger cells is softer and lighter colored than that formed of the smaller cells of the autumn growth.

The wood is mainly composed of tracheids, there being no vessels formed except the first year. These tracheids are characterized by the presence of peculiar pits upon their walls, best seen when thin longitudinal sections are made in a radial direction. These pits (Fig.76, D, p) appear in this view as double circles, but if cut across, as often happens in a cross-section of the stem, or in a longitudinal section at right angles to the radius (tangential), they are seen to be in shape something like an inverted saucer with a hole through the bottom. They are formed in pairs, one on each side of the wall of adjacent tracheids, and are separated by a very delicate membrane (F, p, G, y). These “bordered” pits are very characteristic of the wood of all conifers.

The structure of the root is best studied in the seedling plant, or in a rootlet of an older one. The general plan of the root is much like that of the pteridophytes. The fibro-vascular bundle (Fig.75, M, fb.) is of the so-called radial type, there being three xylem masses (x) alternating with as many phloem masses (ph.) in the root of the seedling. This regularity becomes destroyed as the root grows older by the formation of a cambium ring, something like that in the stem.

The development of the sporangia is on the whole much like that of the club mosses, and will not be examined here in detail. The microspores (pollen spores) are formed in groups of four in precisely the same way as the spores of the bryophytes and pteridophytes, and by collecting the male flowers as they begin to appear in the spring, and crushing the sporangia in water, the process of division may be seen. For more careful examination they may be crushed in a mixture of water and acetic acid, to which is added a little gentian violet. This mixture fixes and stains the nuclei of the spores, and very instructive preparations may thus be made.[11]

The ripe pollen spores (Fig.77, D) are oval cells provided with a double wall, the outer one giving rise to two peculiar bladder-like appendages (z). Like the microspores of the smaller club mosses, a small cell is cut off from the body of the spore (x). These pollen spores are carried by the wind to the ovules, where they germinate.

The wall of the ripe sporangium or pollen sac is composed of a single layer of cells in most places, and these cells are provided with thickened ridges which have to do with opening the pollen sac.

We have already examined in some detail the structure of the macrosporangium or ovule. In the full-grown ovule the macrospore, which in the seed plants is generally known as the “embryo sac,” is completely filled with the prothallium or “endosperm.” In the upper part of the prothallium several large archegonia are formed in much the same way as in the pteridophytes. The egg cell is very large, and appears of a yellowish color, and filled with large drops that give it a peculiar aspect. There is a large nucleus, but it is not always readily distinguished from the other contents of the egg cell. The neck of the archegonium is quite long, but does not project above the surface of the prothallium (Fig.77, H).

The pollen spores are produced in great numbers, and many of them fall upon the female flowers, which when ready for pollination have the scales somewhat separated. The pollen spores now sift down to the base of the scales, and finally reach the opening of the ovule, where they germinate. No spermatozoids are produced, the seed plants differing in this respect from all pteridophytes. The pollen spore bursts its outer coat, and sends out a tube which penetrates for some distance into the tissue of the ovule, acting very much as a parasitic fungus would do, and growing at the expense of the tissue through which it grows. After a time growth ceases, and is not resumed until the development of the female prothallium and archegonia is nearly complete, which does not occur until more than a year from the time the pollen spore first reaches the ovule. Finally the pollen tube penetrates down to and through the open neck of the archegonium, until it comes in contact with the egg cell. These stages can only be seen by careful sections through a number of ripe ovules, but the track of the pollen tube is usually easy to follow, as the cells along it are often brown and apparently dead (Fig.77, G).

Classification of the Gymnosperms.

There are three classes of the gymnosperms: I., cycads (CycadeÆ); II., conifers (ConiferÆ); III., joint firs (GnetaceÆ). All of the gymnosperms of the northern United States belong to the second order, but representatives of the others are found in the southern and southwestern states.

The cycads are palm-like forms having a single trunk crowned by a circle of compound leaves. Several species are grown for ornament in conservatories, and a few species occur native in Florida, but otherwise do not occur within our limits.

The spore-bearing leaves usually form cones, recalling somewhat in structure those of the horse-tails, but one of the commonest cultivated species (Cycas revoluta) bears the ovules, which are very large, upon leaves that are in shape much like the ordinary ones (Fig.78, A).

Of the conifers, there are numerous familiar forms, including all our common evergreen trees. There are two sub-orders,—the true conifers and the yews. In the latter there is no true cone, but the ovules are borne singly at the end of a branch, and the seed in the yew (Taxus) is surrounded by a bright red, fleshy integument. One species of yew, a low, straggling shrub, occurs sparingly in the northern states, and is the only representative of the group at the north. The European yew and the curious Japanese Gingko (Fig.78, B) are sometimes met with in cultivation.

Of the true conifers, there are a number of families, based on peculiarities in the leaves and cones. Some have needle-shaped leaves and dry cones like the firs, spruces, hemlock (Fig.78, C). Others have flattened, scale-like leaves, and more or less fleshy cones, like the red cedar (Fig.78, D) and Arbor-vitÆ (E).

A few of the conifers, such as the tamarack or larch (Larix) and cypress (Taxodium), lose their leaves in the autumn, and are not, therefore, properly “evergreen.”

The conifers include some of the most valuable as well as the largest of trees. Their timber, especially that of some of the pines, is particularly valuable, and the resin of some of them is also of much commercial importance. Here belong the giant red-woods (Sequoia) of California, the largest of all American trees.

The joint firs are comparatively small plants, rarely if ever reaching the dimensions of trees. They are found in various parts of the world, but are few in number, and not at all likely to be met with by the ordinary student. Their flowers are rather more highly differentiated than those of the other gymnosperms, and are said to show some approach in structure to those of the angiosperms.