PLANT KINGDOM

I. PHYLUM THALLOPHYTA

This group includes the most primitive form in plants ranging in size from small single microscopic cell to seaweed of huge dimensions. The forms included in this group are of simple structures and there is no differentiation into organs such as stems, leaves, flowers etc. This simple plant body is called thalus. That is why all organism belonging to this group is called thalus. It maybe separated conveniently into two artificial subphyla based in the manner in which the plants secure their food.

Subphylum I. Autophytic Thallophytes

These are chlorophyll-bearing thallophytes, therefore they are able to carry on photosynthesis and lived on inorganic matter. There are three classes:

CLASS I. CYANOPHYCEAE (blue-green algae)

Unicellular plants without definite nuclei occurring often in colonies held together by a jelly-like material. They possess blue pigment in addition to chlorophyll. Some blue-green algae secrete lime and therefore are important as rock-builders.

CLASS II. DIATOMEAE

Diatomeae are thallophytes which maybe related to the green and brown algae. They are microscopic, chlorophyll-bearing, unicellular with definite or distinct nuclei. Reproduction is either sexual or asexual. Sexual is through the union of two cells. They occur in both fresh and salt water. In the ocean, they form a large part of what we call planktons (microscopic organism which move because of the movement of water and not through their own effort), which are drifting masses of organisms on the surface of water and furnish the food of many marine animals. Extends in large numbers at depth of probably 20 meters. Skeletons of diatoms when cast off at great depths at the process of reproduction maybe deposited at ocean bottoms or in any body of water and they form diatomaceous oozes. Skeletons are mainly silica, known as siliceous oozes, and when they are formed in the rocks (ex. thru diagenetic process), these rocks are diatomites or diatomaceous earth.

CLASS III. ALGAE

Algae are commonly known as seaweeds. Primitive water-dwelling plants ranging from microscopic, one-celled form to large and complex plants. Majority live submerge in water (fresh/salt), all others are found in the wet substrate or at least carry on an active existence during the periods where water or moisture is abundant. The green-coloring matter (chlorophyll) which is always found in algae is also marked by some brown, red pigmentations. These algae have been observed from the Cambrian up to the present.

1. Green Algae - unicellular and multicellular

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Ex. a) Protococcus - green algae abundant on sides of rocks and shaded trees. It is the most common green algae because it is remarkably resistant to drought.

b) Desmids - abundant in fresh water.

c) Halimeda - lime-secreting algae of the modern waters especially on coral reefs connecting dead coral skeletons, and other organic remains. Forms extensive limestone deposits. Its analysis shows that it gives 90% lime and 4% of organic matter and because of that it is a very important rock-builder.

d) Chara - fresh water algae. Also lime-secreting and when the organism dies, the lime secreted disintegrates and settles as lime muds, which is responsible for many limestone deposits of fresh water origin.

2. Brown Algae - (green + brown pigmentation)

Ex. a) Fucus - a rockweed common in rock exposed during a low tide. Found in intertidal substrata.

b) Laminaria - large algae growing in the deeper waters beyond the low tide. Includes some of the largest known plants. Some having huge trunk-line stalks and reaching a height of several hundred feet.

c) Sorgassum

d) Nematophycus - very large plant whose fossilized stem have been found in the Silurian and Devonian rocks. (There is no important lime-secreting brown algae).

3. Red Algae - (green + red pigment).

There are some lime-secreting forms, and the most important form is the:

a) Corallina - plants growing in delicate jointed filaments which form little turfs on rocks and seaweeds.

b) Lithothamnium - lime-secreted by that plants which usually forms crusts on the surface of shells, corals and rocks on which it grows. One of the principal coral-reef builders. Reef-builders and binders (they put together organic remains, shells, corals and brachiopods).

c) Cryptozoon - calcareous masses of unicellular organisms called cryptozoon. Early Paleozoic.

Subphylum II. Heterophytic Thallophytes

Heterophytic Thallophytes are especially characterized by the absence of chlorophyll, can not carry on photosynthesis, and the principal source of energy is the organic matter. Accordingly, they live as:

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1) Sarphytes - live on decaying organic matter (living organism) or as parasites. Significantly, without the action of these plants in causing the delay of dead organism, the surface of the earth will be covered so deeply with dead bodies of plants and animals.

CLASS I. SCHIZOMYCETES (Bacteria)

Schizomycetes are simple one-celled plants without definite nuclei, averages about 2 micron in diameter, and within this very small bodies of plants is carried on all the activities of life like respiration, reproduction, excretion, etc. Reproduction is usually asexual. Economically significant as agents of fermentation, decay and disease.

Kinds:

1. Sphere - coccus

2. Spiral - spirillum

3. Rod - bacillus

CLASS II. MYXOMYCETES (Slime fungi)

Myxomyctes are sticky masses enclosing many nuclei and without cell walls. Frequently occur on decaying wood and lives in the forest. Some have combined characteristic of plants and animals, thus it is quite doubtful where to classify them. They live on decaying matter, and more like amoeba. They are generally terrestrial. No known fossil forms. Ex. Acrytia.

CLASS III. FUNGI (True fungi)

Fungi consists essentially of a branching mass of thread called mycellum. Resembling the cobweb rootlets of the mushroom. These threads penetrate the cell walls of the host plant or the animal, and live upon its substance (that's why they are called parasites).

Kinds of fungi:

1. Algae fungi (phycomycetes) - includes the bread mold, grape mildew>

2. Sac fungi (ascomycetes) - represented by yeast.

3. Club fungi (basidiomycetes) - highest form of fungi, mushrooms, toadstones, rarely preserved as fossils.

Lichens - widely distributed gray brown, found in tree trunks and rocks, made up of fungi (sac fungi) and green algae (protococcus).

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Importance of Thallophytes:

1. Thallophytes as rock-builders specifically algae.

2. Thallophytes as reef builders specifically algae.

II. PHYLUM BRYOPHYTA (Greek word bryon - moss, phyton - plants)

Bryophytes exhibits a distinct characteristic from Thallophytes from the following:

1. Their terrestrial habit

2. The greater specialization of the plant body.

3. The constant occurrence of alternation of generation in the life cycle or methods of reproduction.

As most thallophytes are essentially water-dwelling plants like the algae, there is no necessity for specialization of organs. Since any of the plant cells can move for absorbing the food which surrounds it. With the evolution of the bryophytes, there came a change from aquatic to terrestrial conditions and thus goes a need for a specialized organs adopted for getting food from the soil and from the air.

The not very inefficient "root-like" hairs called rhizoids take water and other necessary substance from the soil. To protect against excessive loss of water, the cells at the surface of the plant are provided with a cuticle which is lacking in thallophytes.

The adaptation of terresrtial conditions being still imperfect, many bryophytes such as some liverworts still have thalloid plant body, while the group as a whole is moisture-loving. During dry period they almost ceased vegetating.

CLASS I. HEPATICAE (Liverworts)

Hapaticae include the simplest bryophytes with many similarities with the algae. Ex. Riccia and Machantia. Macanthia polymorpha is the most common and widely distributed among the liverworts.

CLASS II. MUSCI (Mosses)

The mosses today are more abundant than liverworts. The haircup moss (Polytrichum commune) and the peat moss (Sphagmum) are the common examples. In Sphagmum, most of the leaves consist of many small chlorophyll-bearing cells and a few large empty cells which are responsible for the light green color of the leaves. And because of their presence, the Sphagum has a great capacity to absorb water. It is probable that ancient representatives of bryophytes were more delicate than modern forms for only under exceptional conditions have they been preserved. Remains of delicate plants such as Rhynia occur in the Early Devonian series of silicified peat beds.

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III. PHYLUM PTERIDOPHYTA: (Greek word: pteris - fern, phyton - plants)

The Pteridophytes are much more complex plant, while the structure of the moss plants are simple and cellular, and that of the pteridophytes have vascular structure. In particular, like the higher flowering types, the plant possesses a series of vessel which form a conducting apparatus for the food and manufacture of sap. Bryophytes and Pteridophytes are sometimes called cryptogams, that is, without true flowers and seeds. They are distinguished from the phanerograms which are the higher flowering plants. The bryophytes are cellular cryptograms whereas the pteridophytes are vascular cryptogams. Like the bryophytes, the pteridophytes produces a conspicuous alternation of generation but differ from the bryophytes in the relative importance of the sexual reproductive and asexual vegetative stages.

In the development of the land flora, the pteridophytes are more advanced than the bryophytes in the following:

1. The independence of sporophytic generation.2. The well-organized vascular system.3. The more efficient epidermis (cuticle).4. The development of roots which penetrate in a relatively deeper and

moistened layer.

CLASS I. FELICALES (Fern)

The leaf of the fern is generally broad and is often divided into leaflets, the sporecases are gathered into round fruit dots born on more or less modified portions of the leaf or on the independent fruiting stalks. Ferns are widely distributed over the earth. They flourish most luxuriantly in moist and shady habitats.

CLASS II. EQUISITALIS (Horsetails)

Horsetails are low plants growing usually in moist localities but often but often in railway embankment. They have simple or branching stalks which are strongly furrowed longitudinally and are divided into sections by very distinct joints known as nodes. They also have hollow internode stem in a circle at its joint because of the peripheral leaves. Photosynthesis is carried on largely by the stems. The carboniferous representative of this class were large forest tree which bore large leaves. These horsetails have existed from Devonian up to the present. Pennsylvanian fossils often attain a height of 100 ft. and are usually preserved in the form of cast.

CLASS III. LYCOPODIALES (Club Mosses)

Living club mosses are largely creeping plants with numerous tiny moss-like leaves spirally arranged on the stems. The spore-bearing leaves are arranged in a club-like forms as in horsetail. They embrace only for living genera of which the more common are:

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1. Lycopodium2. Selaginella

Includes nearly 600 species most of which grow in moist tropical forest.

Lepidodendron is an ancient clubmoss. It is a lofty tree of the Late Paleozoic appearing in the lower Devonian and dying out in the Permian. It was especially abundant throughout the world during the Carboniferous.

Sigillaria is a tree that resembles lepidodendron in general appearance as well as in geologic range. It differed in the structure of its stem and in the arrangement of its leaves as indicated by the impression of the bark covered with leaf-cushion. The leaf-cushion are hexagonal in outline and arranged in a quite vertical rows. Its cones are known as Ligallariastrobus.

CLASS IV. SPHENEROPHYLLATES

These are paleozoic group of slender plants with jointed stems and leaves in whorls. They are probably trailing and climbing in habit and are known from Devonian to Permian. Sphenophylum is a small branching plant with slender ribbed-stem represented by many species in the Pennsylvanian coal fields of Eastern North America. The leaves are six in a whorl and wedge shaped.

IV. PHYLUM SPERMATOPHYTA

This includes the most highly organized plants and are distinguished by the production of seeds. The two (2) distinguishing characteristics of the Spermatophyta which sharply differentiate them from all other plants are:

1. The formation of a pollen tube (short in the gymnosperm; long in the angiosperm)

2. The production of seeds - the seed is the beginning of the sporophyte stage; the embryo within it later unfolds into the natural plant.

In seed plants, fertilization is not conditioned by the presence of water for the male gametophyte (pollen grains) is carried by winds or insects to the vicinity of the megaspore, develops a tube (pollen tube) down which the male gametes are carried by the flow of protoplasm to the female gametophyte.

The spermatophytes are divided into two classes:

CLASS A. GYMNOSPERM (Greek word gymnos - naked; sperm - seed)

These plants are typified by the pines. In the female pine cone, each scale is a leaf (that is a megasporophyll known as pistil or carpil) upon the base of these two ovules develops. The surface of each of these becomes very hard and is often extended to form a wing which catches the mind and carries it some distances from the parent tree.

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Under the gymnosperms are trees and shrubs mostly evergreen. They include the following orders:

ORDER CYCADALES

Family Cycadeoideae

This extinct family of trees of shrubs resembled the living cycads in general outer appearance. The stem in most forms was thick and short and closely covered with an armor of persistent leaf-bases.

This order formed the dominant vegetation of the Mesozoic ranging from the Jurassic-Cretaceous in North America, Europe, India and the Arctic regions.

Family Cycadeae

These are existing cycads or sago palms. Plants with thick, columnar stems, at times attaining a height of 30 to 60 ft. The trunks are covered with armor of old leaf bases.

Living cycads are tropical. There are nine genera of cycads, the best known of which are genus found in Australia and Asia. They existed in the Mesozoic and therefore Mesozoic is marked as the "age of the cycads".

ORDER CORDIATALES

An extinct group of tall, slender trees which had a general distribution throughout the world from the Devonian to Permian, inclusive. It is represented by the genus Cordaitales. The trunk rose to a height of 30 to 100 ft. with a dense crown of branches bearing narrow round-like leaves. The leaves are distinguished by their conspicuous parallel vein and their great size attaining at times a length of 3 ft.

The Cordaitales are more confined to the Paleozoic and furnished the predominant members of the gymnosperm during the Devonian and especially later during the Carboniferous.

ORDER GINKGOALES

An isolated group group of gymnosperm represented at present by only one genus and one species Ginkgo bilova known as maiden hair tree with long varied history. The Ginkgo is a tree which in general appearance and anatomy of the stem closely resembles the conifers. The Ginkgoales is widespread in the Jurassic and abundant in the Cretaceous.

In the earlier part of the Tertiary, the Ginkgo flourished in Alaska, Greenland and the northern part of the United Kingdom. Because of its great antiquity and isolated position, it has been called a "living fossil". It is supposed to have risen from the group Cordaitales.

ORDER CONIFERALES

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This order includes the conspicuous gymnosperm vegetation of northern temperate regions made of trees and shrubs mostly evergreen. Usually with rigid needle or scale-leaves and with male and female cones. The conifers were probably derived from the Cordaitales of the Paleozoic retaining fewer primitive characters than the Ginkgoales. Living conifers are represented by about 40 genera and 300 species. They are divided into two (2) families:

1. Taxaceae2. Penaceae

The genus Sequoia is the only living conifer that was widely distributed during Cretaceous and Tertiary in California and South Oregon regions.

ORDER GNETALES

This group of small trees and shrubs consist of 3 living genera including the Ephedra of the desert regions of both hemisphere. There is no fossil record of this order.

CLASS B. ANGIOSPERM

To this class belongs the plants of the highest rank. This group, the latest to come to earth, comprises over half of the known living species of plants. It is the angiosperms which clothes most of the earth with vegetation.

In every climate and at almost all altitudes, they nearly always compete successfully with all other types of vegetation. They not only cover the earth but many species have invaded the fresh water realm of the algae with wonderful success. The numbers of the angiosperm are commonly known as the "flowering plants".

Subclass A. Monocotyledons

These plants are usually distinguished by the following characteristics:

1. The plant begins with a simple leaflet or cotyledon. 2. The leaves are parallel veins.3. The stem is cylindrical with the vascular bundles scattered.4. A cross-section does not show concentric growth lines.5. The roots are fibrous.6. The parts of the flowers are in threes.

This subclass includes today's members of vast economic importance to man. Ex. grasses, especially their fruits, the grains, banana, coconut and sago palms (tallest grass on earth is bamboo).

Representatives of the subclass are the first known for the upper part of the lower Cretaceous of eastern North America and Portugal in such lowly forms as the "Pondweed and Ledge". The lily and palm appeared in the Cretaceous, while not until the Tertiary did the grasses made their appearance. Paleontologic record of the palm dates back to the mid-Cretaceous.

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Subclass B. Dicotyledons

Dicotyledons usually possess the following characters:

1. The plants begin with two (2) seedling leaves.2. The leaves are usually netted veins.3. The stem is usually thicker below than above, with vascular bundles arranged

to form a cylinder, enclosing a pit center.4. As growth proceeds, new cylinders are formed.5. Since the vascular bundles formed in spring have thinner walls than those

formed in late summer and fall. The annual growth becomes visible as a concentric ring.

6. A top root is usually present.7. The parts of flowers are in 4's or 5's.

Dicotyledons are regarded as more primitive than the monocotyledons and as their probable ancestors.

Example:

1. Liriodendron tulipifera - one of the most primitive dicotyledon. They are in the eastern and north America reaching a diameter of 4'-12' and a height of 60'-190'. Geologic range from Cretaceous to present.

2. Assafras - from lower Cretaceous to present

3. Poplar - from lower Cretaceous to present

Evolution of Plants

Plant in its simplest form is essentially a minute protoplasm encase in a firm rounded cell wall capable of carrying on the fundamental activity of all life. The storage and expenditures of energy. Some of these energy is used in the division of cells and the many celled plant came into existence when some of the cells remained in the contact after division. The resulting larger organisms possessed more surface exposed to the sun's rays and in contact with food in solution in oceans and soils, and thus would avail themselves of larger storage than energy. Subdivision of labor develop among the cells of these larger plants (thallophytes).

Certain cells have protecting function, others reproductive, while others manufacture starch. When plant branch out upon the plant, the cellular structure gradually evolve into a stronger type (the vascular structure), with the cells arranged end to end in a series of minute piles bounded together in bundles. The change from cellular to vascular is thus necessary in the development of the land floras. A change that open up the possibility of increase in size that laid the foundation for the mighty trees of the Carboniferous forest and the giant red woods of western United States. Another difficulty that plants had to meet in adapting themselves to land is that they must develop a resistance to the drying out of the air. Roles played by the different phyla in the evolution of plants:

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1. The early plants tied to the water.

2. Water gave them food and held them up against the pull of gravity.

3. Water kept them from drying up and unable them to reproduce. This is the stage of the thallophytes.

4. The first step to the development of land floras were most probably taken by some early group of fresh water algae, the bryophytes. In ponds, subject to annual drought, the more plastic form of life extended themselves in contact with the damp soil down into the root hairs, while the cells in contact with the air developed a thickened surface. An early stage in such adaptation to air is exemplified by the liverworts. Slightly resistant to dry air but must live in moist area such as the edge of waterfall.

5. The change from cellular to vascular structure and the larger plants which led to the development of roots that could secure foothold in the soil was taken by Pteridophytes. Mammoth tree ferns reared lofty stems and develop deep branching roots in the Late Paleozoic.

6. It is only the spermatophytes which have evolved a device which has finally freed the plants of the necessity of external water for the process of fertilization.

Since in these terrestrial phyla, the cellular cell walls are denser and more resistant to decay than those of the thallophytes, they may under proper conditions be preserved. Such deposits as peat, lignite and coal are known from the late Devonian to the present.

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ANIMAL KINGDOM

I. PHYLUM PROTOZOA - in this phylum occurs the lowest or first form of animals.

Classes: A. SarcodinaB. MastigophoraC. SporozoaD. Infusoria

Characteristics:

1. There is no trace of a nervous system.

2. It is sensitive to chemical change in the water surrounding it, and it tends to move away from the source of heat and the chemically changed area.

3. It moves away likewise from the source of light and from the negative pole when the water containing it is charged with electricity.

4. It avoids mechanical obstacle in the water by reversing the flow of its protoplasm into the opposite direction. (propels the movement).

Thus, mechanical, chemical, and electrical stimuli and variations in heat and light control the direction of movement. Method of reproduction is single division or cell division.

CLASS SARCODINA

These are marine or fresh water protozoan with a body which alternately protrudes and retracts, first one and then another part into a finger-like process "pseudopodia". Method of reproduction is binary or multiple fission. This is divided into two (2) subclasses:

Subclass Rhizopoda

The most important member of which is Foraminifera. In the Foraminifera, the skeleton which is usually referred to as the test, is composed of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), more rarely of sand or of chitin, forming one or more openings. Most Foraminifera are bottom-dwelling forms, using net-like pseudopodia to capture food. They crawl slowly about, or attach to various objects at the bottom of the sea. Although a few species have adapted to pelagic (free-floating) existence of planktonics.

On the basis of habitat, Foraminifera maybe classified as planktonic, nektonic and benthonic. Planktonics are adopted to floating at or near the surface and are widely distributed by current which made them excellent guide fossils for stratigraphic work. Nektonics are adapted to floating. Benthonics are those adapted to crawling. They constitute the largest number of the genera of the Foraminifera.

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Factors affecting their reproduction:

1. Amount of light2. Availability of O, CO3. Availability of food4. Availability of CaCO3

Methods of reproduction in Foraminifera are both asexual and sexual. Majority are marine, very few simpler forms live in brackish water, or fresh water, usually bottom-dwelling found in seas, seldom below 2,000 fathom. Occurs from the Cambrian to present. Relatively important in the search for oil (dating rocks).

Ex. Globigerina - from Cretaceous to presentFusulinids - from Pennsylvanian to Permian (found in the Carabao Islands

and Mindoro, Philippines)Lepidocyclina - from Eocene to Miocene

Subclass Actinopoda

These are usually floating forms, rarely changeable pseudopodia, provided with uni-axial thread and subdivided into two (2) orders:

Order 1. Heliosa - combined to fresh water and no fossil evidence.

Order 2. Radiolaria - the more important order, marine-silica secreting organisms. Usually float at the surface of the ocean even at abyssal depths and present in all climates, after death of animals accumulates forming a siliceous deposit known as "radiolarian oozes". These radiolarias occur from the pre-Cambrian to the present.

CLASS MASTIGOPHORA

These protozoans have definite body outline. The body being protected in some species by a skeleton of cellulose or chitin. Organs of locomotion and for food capture are the flagella-slender threads capable of whip-like slushing movement. Ex. Euglena

CLASS SPOROZOA

Parasitic protozoans, no definite organ of locomotion or food getting especially in the adult stage. Reproduction is by the formation of seed-like bodies which are the spores which contain one or more minute germs which are known as sporozites. No known fossil record. Ex. Plasmodium

CLASS INFUSORIA

Has a definite body outline, the organ of locomotion and food getting during all and part of active life are cilia which are small vibratile thread smaller and more numerous than flagella, unknown in fossil state. Ex. Vorticella, Paramecium.

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Evolution of Protozoa

These are one-celled animals have met their needs by radiating into four (4) main directions. In Sarcodina, the protoplasm sense out more or less temporary food procuring directions (pseudopodia). In Mastigophora, the protoplasmic projection is confined to one or more permanent extensions which are the flagella. In Infusoria, the protoplasm is extended outward into numerous permanent cilia. In Sporozoa, a large group became parasites, do not have organ for food getting.

Protozoa as rock builders

Rock-building is naturally confined to the lime and silica-secreting orders of the Foraminifera and Radiolaria.

The modern Globigerina oozes are composed largely of the representative of the pelagic families of Foraminifera occur at the edge of continental shelf or up to the depth of 25,000 fathom. Present from Cambrian-present. Reproduction too slow to enable their test to enter largely to the composition of rocks before Pennsylvanian. During the Permian and Pennsylvanian, Fusulinidae formed solid masses of Fusulina limestone at numerous horizons and such limestone is present in the Philippines (Carabao Island and Mindoro).

II. PHYLUM PORIFERA

These are exemplified by the sponges. Sponges are organisms consisting of many cells. They are plant-like in appearance and variable in shape. When sponges grow side by side with each other, usually they fuse into one, and almost any fragment of sponge can grow into a perfectly new individual (reproduce asexually). Almost all sponges are marine, and they are abundant in the shallow parts of the ocean with an exception of some. Ex. Venus's flower basket (Euplectella aspergellum) which are found in abyssal depths. Spongilla - example of fresh water sponge. Skeleton of sponges maybe of calcareous, or siliceous spicules, or it maybe horny fiber. When siliceous spicules are loosely bounded together and upon the decomposition of the soft parts of the animals, they will be collected in the depositing sediment and substratum, and when very abundant, they may form siliceous beds. In some cases, the spicules are partially dissolved in sea water and when this is so, this dissolved silica are redeposited as siliceous cement, (which is later called chert) binding the remaining spicules together. Spicules are very minute and their detection is only possible by means of a high-powered microscope. The spicules may be made up of silica, few are made up of CaCO3, and still fewer ones are made up of leathery substance known as spongin. The spongin are rarely preserved as fossils and therefore are no importance as rock-builders.

CLASS CALCAREA

Skeletons are made up of calcareous spicules found in shallower parts of the sea today. Among the recent forms are Grantia.

CLASS HEXACTINELLIDA

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The skeleton is made up of six-ray spicules. To these class belong most of the fossil sponges. Although their present forms are found in the deeper waters, their fossil forms live comparatively shallow waters. Ex. Euplectella asperellum.

CLASS DEMOSPONGIA

They possess skeletons of siliceous spicules or of spongin or of both. This class includes the majority of the living forms. Ex. Astylospongia primosia.

Evolution of Poriferas

The first great step in the development of a larger animal and a more varied one appears to be the transformation of a protozoan colony of similar one-celled organism into a single organism of many independent cells. In these, new organism, each cell must act for the welfare of all the others. Therefore, in the sponges, certain cells catch indigested food, others secrete spicules, others excrete waste materials.

There is a law of life that all factors being equal, the larger the organism the better its chance for survival. Therefore, a sponge because of its greater size cannot be easily destroyed by settling sediments nor can it be readily eaten by other organism like that of protozoa. Sponges represent an evolution from protozoan ancestors which led however to nothing beyond the sponges themselves. The living representative of this phylum are rarely used for food by other animals apparently because of their objectionable spicules and its being poisonous and therefore was able to survive first as a colony and later on as an individual evolved to something more complex.

Porifera as rock builders

In the Upper Jurassic of Europe, many reefs apparently are formed to a large extent by lime-secreting sponges. As a rule, however, sponges are too few in number all over the world, with hard parts too small in amount to have been effective as rock builders.

III. PHYLUM COELENTERATA

These are aquatic, usually marine animals with radial symmetry, the mouth is nearly surrounded by tentacles (ex. sea anemone). The tentacles are hollow and or solid outgrowths of the body wall. These are animals which are provided with special offensive weapons called nematocysts or nettle-cells. (Portuguese-man-of-war) jellyfish.

CLASS HYDROZOA

These are aquatic animals with a body consisting of a large centrally placed digestive cavity but with only one opening which is the mouth, but the mouth is also surrounded by tentacles. They had been observed from Ordovician to the present. Ex. Hydra

Order Stromatophroidea

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This is the most important colonial order of hydrozoa which are extinct groups of coelenterates especially during the Paleozoic era particularly Silurian and Devonian. They are important limestone-builders, commonly associated with true corals, bryozoans and algae. They are responsible for building bioherms and reefs and sometimes bedded limestones, known only in its fossil forms.

CLASS GRAPTOZOA

These are the graptolites, extinct colonial coelenterates which maybe floating on the surface of the water attached to a drifting seaweed. They secrete a protecting and supporting skeleton of chitin and these animals are known only from their colonial phase. Graptolites live in suspended life, meaning they did not live fastened to the sea bottom as shown by the fact as their remains are always confined to embedding plane, never passing vertically from one bed to another, they are always spread flat, although found in all kinds of sediments as fossil including limestone, they are very common in fine-grained carbonaceous shale. They have been observed to be very abundant during Ordovician.

CLASS SCYPHOZOA

These are the jelly-fishes, either made up of large free-swimming umbrella -shaped individuals called the medusae. They have been known from Pre-Cambrian (?) to the present. They are entirely without hard parts and is about 99% water so that only under exceptional conditions have they left record of their presence. When they do, they left a very fine-grained mud impression of their soft bodies which were preserved, sometimes perhaps imprints of their tentacles may have been observed.

CLASS ANTHOZOA

They are called true corals. They are colonial in form and when living and active, they may look like plants and flowers. After death and the decomposition of flesh, nothing is seen but CaCO3 mass of a star-like cap called corallites, is left with an average diameter of 3 to 5 cm. for the colonial form.

Ceolenterates as rock builders

Members of the class hydrozoa and anthozoa are important as rock-builders from Cambrian to present.

Economic importance of coral limestone

Coral limestone have been extensively used as building materials for road constructions, and many other decorative purposes even for interior decoration trimmings. During the recent years, petroleum geologist became increasingly interested in reef limestone for reservoir rocks for petroleum and hydrocarbon. Ex. production of petroleum reservoir in Alberta, Canada, also in Mexico, Texas. In Iraq and Iran, reef limestone of Cretaceous and Tertiary age have been preserved.

Evolution of Coelenterates

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Coelenterates have perhaps risen from a protozoan group somewhat like the dinoflagellates (Mastigophora) as indicated by the similarity of cell structure. The primitive coelenterate stocks are divided into the freely floating Scyphozoa and those forms which are usually attached during one phase of their existence.

IV. PHYLUM ECHINODERMATA

These are mainly marine organism typically radially symmetrical with a skeleton of calcareous plates or spicules embedded in the skin. The arrangement of the skeletal plates and the internal organs is usually pentamerous (made up of 5), the number 5 being the governing number in the echinoderms. It represents an advancement over the coelenterates in the following manners:

1. Presence of a digestive tube distinct from the body cavity (Coelome).

2. Highly developed nervous system.

3. Possession of "blood" vascular system.

4. Almost exclusively sexual mode of reproduction (reproduction of entirely new individual).

CLASS CRINOIDEA

They are sea lilies. The body is more or less globular, fastened temporarily or permanently to some object by mass of a stalk arising from its dorsal side. Flower-like, plant-like in appearance and comes in all colors of the rainbow.

The whole class ranges from Cambrian to present. Abundant in later Paleozoic plants due to gregarious habits (living in flocks). Their skeleton may form a great part of limestone formation which were referred to as crinoidal limestone. Abundant in moderate depths, in few cases, they maybe found in very deep and shallow waters, and fossil remains composed mainly of detached fragmented portions of stem of stalk or scattered bony plates, made them important important as rock builders.

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PLANT KINGDOM

I. PHYLUM THALLOPHYTA

This group includes the most primitive form in plants ranging in size from small single microscopic cell to seaweed of huge dimensions. The forms included in this group are of simple structures and there is no differentiation into organs such as stems, leaves, flowers etc. This simple plant body is called thalus. That is why all organism belonging to this group is called thalus. It maybe separated conveniently into two artificial subphyla based in the manner in which the plants secure their food.

Subphylum I. Autophytic Thallophytes

These are chlorophyll-bearing thallophytes, therefore they are able to carry on photosynthesis and lived on inorganic matter. There are three classes:

CLASS I. CYANOPHYCEAE (blue-green algae)

Unicellular plants without definite nuclei occurring often in colonies held together by a jelly-like material. They possess blue pigment in addition to chlorophyll. Some blue-green algae secrete lime and therefore are important as rock-builders.

CLASS II. DIATOMEAE

Diatomeae are thallophytes which maybe related to the green and brown algae. They are microscopic, chlorophyll-bearing, unicellular with definite or distinct nuclei. Reproduction is either sexual or asexual. Sexual is through the union of two cells. They occur in both fresh and salt water. In the ocean, they form a large part of what we call planktons (microscopic organism which move because of the movement of water and not through their own effort), which are drifting masses of organisms on the surface of water and furnish the food of many marine animals. Extends in large numbers at depth of probably 20 meters. Skeletons of diatoms when cast off at great depths at the process of reproduction maybe deposited at ocean bottoms or in any body of water and they form diatomaceous oozes. Skeletons are mainly silica, known as siliceous oozes, and when they are formed in the rocks (ex. thru diagenetic process), these rocks are diatomites or diatomaceous earth.

CLASS III. ALGAE

Algae are commonly known as seaweeds. Primitive water-dwelling plants ranging from microscopic, one-celled form to large and complex plants. Majority live submerge in water (fresh/salt), all others are found in the wet substrate or at least carry on an active existence during the periods where water or moisture is abundant. The green-coloring matter (chlorophyll) which is always found in algae is also marked by some brown, red pigmentations. These algae have been observed from the Cambrian up to the present.

1. Green Algae - unicellular and multicellular

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Ex. a) Protococcus - green algae abundant on sides of rocks and shaded trees. It is the most common green algae because it is remarkably resistant to drought.

b) Desmids - abundant in fresh water.

c) Halimeda - lime-secreting algae of the modern waters especially on coral reefs connecting dead coral skeletons, and other organic remains. Forms extensive limestone deposits. Its analysis shows that it gives 90% lime and 4% of organic matter and because of that it is a very important rock-builder.

d) Chara - fresh water algae. Also lime-secreting and when the organism dies, the lime secreted disintegrates and settles as lime muds, which is responsible for many limestone deposits of fresh water origin.

2. Brown Algae - (green + brown pigmentation)

Ex. a) Fucus - a rockweed common in rock exposed during a low tide. Found in intertidal substrata.

b) Laminaria - large algae growing in the deeper waters beyond the low tide. Includes some of the largest known plants. Some having huge trunk-line stalks and reaching a height of several hundred feet.

c) Sorgassum

d) Nematophycus - very large plant whose fossilized stem have been found in the Silurian and Devonian rocks. (There is no important lime-secreting brown algae).

3. Red Algae - (green + red pigment).

There are some lime-secreting forms, and the most important form is the:

a) Corallina - plants growing in delicate jointed filaments which form little turfs on rocks and seaweeds.

b) Lithothamnium - lime-secreted by that plants which usually forms crusts on the surface of shells, corals and rocks on which it grows. One of the principal coral-reef builders. Reef-builders and binders (they put together organic remains, shells, corals and brachiopods).

c) Cryptozoon - calcareous masses of unicellular organisms called cryptozoon. Early Paleozoic.

Subphylum II. Heterophytic Thallophytes

Heterophytic Thallophytes are especially characterized by the absence of chlorophyll, can not carry on photosynthesis, and the principal source of energy is the organic matter. Accordingly, they live as:

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1) Sarphytes - live on decaying organic matter (living organism) or as parasites. Significantly, without the action of these plants in causing the delay of dead organism, the surface of the earth will be covered so deeply with dead bodies of plants and animals.

CLASS I. SCHIZOMYCETES (Bacteria)

Schizomycetes are simple one-celled plants without definite nuclei, averages about 2 micron in diameter, and within this very small bodies of plants is carried on all the activities of life like respiration, reproduction, excretion, etc. Reproduction is usually asexual. Economically significant as agents of fermentation, decay and disease.

Kinds:

1. Sphere - coccus

2. Spiral - spirillum

3. Rod - bacillus

CLASS II. MYXOMYCETES (Slime fungi)

Myxomyctes are sticky masses enclosing many nuclei and without cell walls. Frequently occur on decaying wood and lives in the forest. Some have combined characteristic of plants and animals, thus it is quite doubtful where to classify them. They live on decaying matter, and more like amoeba. They are generally terrestrial. No known fossil forms. Ex. Acrytia.

CLASS III. FUNGI (True fungi)

Fungi consists essentially of a branching mass of thread called mycellum. Resembling the cobweb rootlets of the mushroom. These threads penetrate the cell walls of the host plant or the animal, and live upon its substance (that's why they are called parasites).

Kinds of fungi:

1. Algae fungi (phycomycetes) - includes the bread mold, grape mildew>

2. Sac fungi (ascomycetes) - represented by yeast.

3. Club fungi (basidiomycetes) - highest form of fungi, mushrooms, toadstones, rarely preserved as fossils.

Lichens - widely distributed gray brown, found in tree trunks and rocks, made up of fungi (sac fungi) and green algae (protococcus).

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Importance of Thallophytes:

1. Thallophytes as rock-builders specifically algae.

2. Thallophytes as reef builders specifically algae.

II. PHYLUM BRYOPHYTA (Greek word bryon - moss, phyton - plants)

Bryophytes exhibits a distinct characteristic from Thallophytes from the following:

1. Their terrestrial habit

2. The greater specialization of the plant body.

3. The constant occurrence of alternation of generation in the life cycle or methods of reproduction.

As most thallophytes are essentially water-dwelling plants like the algae, there is no necessity for specialization of organs. Since any of the plant cells can move for absorbing the food which surrounds it. With the evolution of the bryophytes, there came a change from aquatic to terrestrial conditions and thus goes a need for a specialized organs adopted for getting food from the soil and from the air.

The not very inefficient "root-like" hairs called rhizoids take water and other necessary substance from the soil. To protect against excessive loss of water, the cells at the surface of the plant are provided with a cuticle which is lacking in thallophytes.

The adaptation of terresrtial conditions being still imperfect, many bryophytes such as some liverworts still have thalloid plant body, while the group as a whole is moisture-loving. During dry period they almost ceased vegetating.

CLASS I. HEPATICAE (Liverworts)

Hapaticae include the simplest bryophytes with many similarities with the algae. Ex. Riccia and Machantia. Macanthia polymorpha is the most common and widely distributed among the liverworts.

CLASS II. MUSCI (Mosses)

The mosses today are more abundant than liverworts. The haircup moss (Polytrichum commune) and the peat moss (Sphagmum) are the common examples. In Sphagmum, most of the leaves consist of many small chlorophyll-bearing cells and a few large empty cells which are responsible for the light green color of the leaves. And because of their presence, the Sphagmum has a great capacity to absorb water. It is probable that ancient representatives of bryophytes were more delicate than modern forms for only under exceptional conditions have they been preserved. Remains of delicate plants such as Rhynia occur in the Early Devonian series of silicified peat beds.

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III. PHYLUM PTERIDOPHYTA: (Greek word: pteris - fern, phyton - plants)

The Pteridophytes are much more complex plant, while the structure of the moss plants are simple and cellular, and that of the pteridophytes have vascular structure. In particular, like the higher flowering types, the plant possesses a series of vessel which form a conducting apparatus for the food and manufacture of sap. Bryophytes and Pteridophytes are sometimes called cryptogams, that is, without true flowers and seeds. They are distinguished from the phanerograms which are the higher flowering plants. The bryophytes are cellular cryptograms whereas the pteridophytes are vascular cryptogams. Like the bryophytes, the pteridophytes produces a conspicuous alternation of generation but differ from the bryophytes in the relative importance of the sexual reproductive and asexual vegetative stages.

In the development of the land flora, the pteridophytes are more advanced than the bryophytes in the following:

1. The independence of sporophytic generation.2. The well-organized vascular system.3. The more efficient epidermis (cuticle).4. The development of roots which penetrate in a relatively deeper and

moistened layer.

CLASS I. FELICALES (Fern)

The leaf of the fern is generally broad and is often divided into leaflets, the sporecases are gathered into round fruit dots born on more or less modified portions of the leaf or on the independent fruiting stalks. Ferns are widely distributed over the earth. They flourish most luxuriantly in moist and shady habitats.

CLASS II. EQUISITALIS (Horsetails)

Horsetails are low plants growing usually in moist localities but often but often in railway embankment. They have simple or branching stalks which are strongly furrowed longitudinally and are divided into sections by very distinct joints known as nodes. They also have hollow internode stem in a circle at its joint because of the peripheral leaves. Photosynthesis is carried on largely by the stems. The carboniferous representative of this class were large forest tree which bore large leaves. These horsetails have existed from Devonian up to the present. Pennsylvanian fossils often attain a height of 100 ft. and are usually preserved in the form of cast.

CLASS III. LYCOPODIALES (Club Mosses)

Living club mosses are largely creeping plants with numerous tiny moss-like leaves spirally arranged on the stems. The spore-bearing leaves are arranged in a club-like forms as in horsetail. They embrace only for living genera of which the more common are:

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1. Lycopodium2. Selaginella

Includes nearly 600 species most of which grow in moist tropical forest.

Lepidodendron is an ancient clubmoss. It is a lofty tree of the Late Paleozoic appearing in the lower Devonian and dying out in the Permian. It was especially abundant throughout the world during the Carboniferous.

Sigillaria is a tree that resembles lepidodendron in general appearance as well as in geologic range. It differed in the structure of its stem and in the arrangement of its leaves as indicated by the impression of the bark covered with leaf-cushion. The leaf-cushion are hexagonal in outline and arranged in a quite vertical rows. Its cones are known as Ligallariastrobus.

CLASS IV. SPHENEROPHYLLATES

These are paleozoic group of slender plants with jointed stems and leaves in whorls. They are probably trailing and climbing in habit and are known from Devonian to Permian. Sphenophylum is a small branching plant with slender ribbed-stem represented by many species in the Pennsylvanian coal fields of Eastern North America. The leaves are six in a whorl and wedge shaped.

IV. PHYLUM SPERMATOPHYTA

This includes the most highly organized plants and are distinguished by the production of seeds. The two (2) distinguishing characteristics of the Spermatophyta which sharply differentiate them from all other plants are:

1. The formation of a pollen tube (short in the gymnosperm; long in the angiosperm)

2. The production of seeds - the seed is the beginning of the sporophyte stage; the embryo within it later unfolds into the natural plant.

In seed plants, fertilization is not conditioned by the presence of water for the male gametophyte (pollen grains) is carried by winds or insects to the vicinity of the megaspore, develops a tube (pollen tube) down which the male gametes are carried by the flow of protoplasm to the female gametophyte.

The spermatophytes are divided into two classes:

CLASS A. GYMNOSPERM (Greek word gymnos - naked; sperm - seed)

These plants are typified by the pines. In the female pine cone, each scale is a leaf (that is a megasporophyll known as pistil or carpil) upon the base of these two ovules develops. The surface of each of these becomes very hard and is often extended to form a wing which catches the mind and carries it some distances from the parent tree.

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Under the gymnosperms are trees and shrubs mostly evergreen. They include the following orders:

ORDER CYCADALES

Family Cycadeoideae

This extinct family of trees of shrubs resembled the living cycads in general outer appearance. The stem in most forms was thick and short and closely covered with an armor of persistent leaf-bases.

This order formed the dominant vegetation of the Mesozoic ranging from the Jurassic-Cretaceous in North America, Europe, India and the Arctic regions.

Family Cycadeae

These are existing cycads or sago palms. Plants with thick, columnar stems, at times attaining a height of 30 to 60 ft. The trunks are covered with armor of old leaf bases.

Living cycads are tropical. There are nine genera of cycads, the best known of which are genus found in Australia and Asia. They existed in the Mesozoic and therefore Mesozoic is marked as the "age of the cycads".

ORDER CORDIATALES

An extinct group of tall, slender trees which had a general distribution throughout the world from the Devonian to Permian, inclusive. It is represented by the genus Cordaitales. The trunk rose to a height of 30 to 100 ft. with a dense crown of branches bearing narrow round-like leaves. The leaves are distinguished by their conspicuous parallel vein and their great size attaining at times a length of 3 ft.

The Cordaitales are more confined to the Paleozoic and furnished the predominant members of the gymnosperm during the Devonian and especially later during the Carboniferous.

ORDER GINKGOALES

An isolated group group of gymnosperm represented at present by only one genus and one species Ginkgo bilova known as maiden hair tree with long varied history. The Ginkgo is a tree which in general appearance and anatomy of the stem closely resembles the conifers. The Ginkgoales is widespread in the Jurassic and abundant in the Cretaceous.

In the earlier part of the Tertiary, the Ginkgo flourished in Alaska, Greenland and the northern part of the United Kingdom. Because of its great antiquity and isolated position, it has been called a "living fossil". It is supposed to have risen from the group Cordaitales.

ORDER CONIFERALES

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This order includes the conspicuous gymnosperm vegetation of northern temperate regions made of trees and shrubs mostly evergreen. Usually with rigid needle or scale-leaves and with male and female cones. The conifers were probably derived from the Cordaitales of the Paleozoic retaining fewer primitive characters than the Ginkgoales. Living conifers are represented by about 40 genera and 300 species. They are divided into two (2) families:

1. Taxaceae2. Penaceae

The genus Sequoia is the only living conifer that was widely distributed during Cretaceous and Tertiary in California and South Oregon regions.

ORDER GNETALES

This group of small trees and shrubs consist of 3 living genera including the Ephedra of the desert regions of both hemisphere. There is no fossil record of this order.

CLASS B. ANGIOSPERM

To this class belongs the plants of the highest rank. This group, the latest to come to earth, comprises over half of the known living species of plants. It is the angiosperms which clothes most of the earth with vegetation.

In every climate and at almost all altitudes, they nearly always compete successfully with all other types of vegetation. They not only cover the earth but many species have invaded the fresh water realm of the algae with wonderful success. The numbers of the angiosperm are commonly known as the "flowering plants".

Subclass A. Monocotyledons

These plants are usually distinguished by the following characteristics:

1. The plant begins with a simple leaflet or cotyledon. 2. The leaves are parallel veins.3. The stem is cylindrical with the vascular bundles scattered.4. A cross-section does not show concentric growth lines.5. The roots are fibrous.6. The parts of the flowers are in threes.

This subclass includes today's members of vast economic importance to man. Ex. grasses, especially their fruits, the grains, banana, coconut and sago palms (tallest grass on earth is bamboo).

Representatives of the subclass are the first known for the upper part of the lower Cretaceous of eastern North America and Portugal in such lowly forms as the "Pondweed and Ledge". The lily and palm appeared in the Cretaceous, while not until the Tertiary did the grasses made their appearance. Paleontologic record of the palm dates back to the mid-Cretaceous.

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Subclass B. Dicotyledons

Dicotyledons usually possess the following characters:

1. The plants begin with two (2) seedling leaves.2. The leaves are usually netted veins.3. The stem is usually thicker below than above, with vascular bundles arranged

to form a cylinder, enclosing a pit center.4. As growth proceeds, new cylinders are formed.5. Since the vascular bundles formed in spring have thinner walls than those

formed in late summer and fall. The annual growth becomes visible as a concentric ring.

6. A top root is usually present.7. The parts of flowers are in 4's or 5's.

Dicotyledons are regarded as more primitive than the monocotyledons and as their probable ancestors.

Example:

1. Liriodendron tulipifera - one of the most primitive dicotyledon. They are in the eastern and north America reaching a diameter of 4'-12' and a height of 60'-190'. Geologic range from Cretaceous to present.

2. Assafras - from lower Cretaceous to present

3. Poplar - from lower Cretaceous to present

Evolution of Plants

Plant in its simplest form is essentially a minute protoplasm encase in a firm rounded cell wall capable of carrying on the fundamental activity of all life. The storage and expenditures of energy. Some of these energy is used in the division of cells and the many celled plant came into existence when some of the cells remained in the contact after division. The resulting larger organisms possessed more surface exposed to the sun's rays and in contact with food in solution in oceans and soils, and thus would avail themselves of larger storage than energy. Subdivision of labor develop among the cells of these larger plants (thallophytes).

Certain cells have protecting function, others reproductive, while others manufacture starch. When plant branch out upon the plant, the cellular structure gradually evolve into a stronger type (the vascular structure), with the cells arranged end to end in a series of minute piles bounded together in bundles. The change from cellular to vascular is thus necessary in the development of the land floras. A change that open up the possibility of increase in size that laid the foundation for the mighty trees of the Carboniferous forest and the giant red woods of western United States. Another difficulty that plants had to meet in adapting themselves to land is that they must develop a resistance to the drying out of the air. Roles played by the different phyla in the evolution of plants:

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1. The early plants tied to the water.

2. Water gave them food and held them up against the pull of gravity.

3. Water kept them from drying up and unable them to reproduce. This is the stage of the thallophytes.

4. The first step to the development of land floras were most probably taken by some early group of fresh water algae, the bryophytes. In ponds, subject to annual drought, the more plastic form of life extended themselves in contact with the damp soil down into the root hairs, while the cells in contact with the air developed a thickened surface. An early stage in such adaptation to air is exemplified by the liverworts. Slightly resistant to dry air but must live in moist area such as the edge of waterfall.

5. The change from cellular to vascular structure and the larger plants which led to the development of roots that could secure foothold in the soil was taken by Pteridophytes. Mammoth tree ferns reared lofty stems and develop deep branching roots in the Late Paleozoic.

6. It is only the spermatophytes which have evolved a device which has finally freed the plants of the necessity of external water for the process of fertilization.

Since in these terrestrial phyla, the cellular cell walls are denser and more resistant to decay than those of the thallophytes, they may under proper conditions be preserved. Such deposits as peat, lignite and coal are known from the late Devonian to the present.

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