Читать книгу Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany - Douglas Houghton Campbell - Страница 13

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In the second sub-kingdom of plants is embraced an enormous assemblage of plants, differing widely in size and complexity, and yet showing a sufficiently complete gradation from the lowest to the highest as to make it impracticable to make more than one sub-kingdom to include them. They are nearly all aquatic forms, although many of them will survive long periods of drying, such forms occurring on moist earth, rocks, or the trunks of trees, but only growing when there is a plentiful supply of water.

All of them possess chlorophyll, which, however, in many forms, is hidden by the presence of a brown or red pigment. They are ordinarily divided into three classes—I. The Green Algæ (Chlorophyceæ); II. Brown Algæ (Phæophyceæ); III. Red Algæ (Rhodophyceæ).