A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

CLASSIFICATION 21
So far as the following "Flora" is concerned but the two higher divisions
of th^ Vegetable Kingdom are considered, III Pteridoplnjta, the ferns and
fern-like plants, often called the vascular cryptogams, and IV Spemiatophyta,
the seed-producing or flowering plants, often called the Phanerogatnia
or phanerogams; the first division consisting of the fungi and
algae, and the second consisting of the mosses and scale-mosses are not
included in this work. Orders are not indicated.
The following is the general scheme of classification of the groups considered
in the following paper:
Division III. PTERIDOPHYTA; ferns and fern-like plants.
Class 1. Filicales; the true ferns (four families in our area).
Class 2. Equisetales; the horse-tails (no representatives in our area).
Class 3. Lycopodiales; the club-mosses (two families in our area).
Division IV. SPERMATOPHYTA; the flowering and seed-producing plants.
Subdivision I. Gymnospermae; plants with naked ovules; stigmas none
(one family in our area, Cycadaceae).
Subdivision II. Angiospermae; plants with ovules in closed ovaries;
stigmas always present.
Class 1. MONOCOTYLEDONEAE ; plants producing seeds with a single
cotyledon, eleven Orders (twenty-six families in our
Class 2.
area).
Dicotyledoneae; plants producing seeds with two cotyledons,
thirty-six Orders (one hundred and three fami-
lies in our area).
To illustrate the above scheme of classification, the common bamboo
known locally as cauayan or cauayan totoo, is known to botanists as
Bambusa blumeana Schultes, the first name being its generic, the second
its specific one, while the third is the name of the botanist who described
the species. It belongs to the tribe Bavihuseae in the Grass Family, or
Gramineae, of the Order Glumales, Class Monocotyledoneae (seeds with
one cotyledon). Subdivision Angiospermae (ovules in closed ovaries), of
the Division Spermatophyta (plants producing seeds). The determination
of a plant in practice usually means tracing it to its proper family,
genus, and species. To facilitate the identification of specimens artificial
keys to the families have been devised, while under the families keys to
the genera, and under the genera keys to the species will be found.
THE PREPARATIOX OF BOTANICAL. SPECIMENS
The number of different species is so great that for purposes of study
and comparison it is necessary to preserve material in a convenient form,
hence various methods have been evolved for drying, mounting, and arranging
botanical specimens.
A botanical specimen of an herbaceous plant, to be complete, should
consist of roots, stems, leaves, buds, flowers, and mature fruit. It is
frequently impossible to gather all of these at any one time, and accordingly
later gatherings are often necessary. In the case of small herbaceous
species frequently everything can be shown by entire plants, but with
coarse ones it is usually convenient or possible to prepare sections only.
In the case of woody plants it is unnecessary to secure specimens of the
roots, but many collectors prepare thin sections showing the bark and wood.