THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS
dant fossil remains. They have also been called Pteridosperms, or seed-bearing ferns (Fig. 8) . From these descended cycad-like plants, which had features resembling those of modern
Fig. 4.—Hair-cap moss (Polytrichum commune). A, male plant; B, same, reproducing vegetatively, growing from the tip of another; C, female plant bearing a spore-case on a long, slender stalk. This spore-bearing phase of the plant (sporophyte) is developed from an egg-cell after it had been fertilized by a sperm from a male plant.
Reproduced, by permission, from Gager’s Fundamentals of Botany, published by P. Blakiston’s Sons & Co. flowering-plants of primitive type and which are called Pro-angiosperms. From this stock are descended the modern cycads (Figs. 9 and 10) and the two great groups of flowering plants—those with two seed-leaves (dicotyledons—magnolias (Fig. 12), buttercups, roses, bell-flowers, dandelions, etc.), and those with one seed-leaf (monocotyledons—lilies (Fig. 14), grasses,
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