e means those plants, mostly
small and herbaceous, which bear no proper seeds;[87] in other words,
the Cryptogamia--as fungi, mosses, lichens, ferns, etc. The remaining
words are translated with sufficient accuracy in our version. They
denote seed-bearing or phoenogamous herbs and trees. The special
mention of the fructification of plants is probably intended not only
for distinction, but also to indicate the new power of organic
reproduction now first introduced on the surface of our planet, and to
mark its difference from the creative act itself. That this new and
wondrous phenomenon should be so stated is thus in strict scientific
propriety, and it is precisely the point that would be seized by an
intelligent spectator of the visions of creation, who had previously
witnessed only the accretion and disintegration of mineral substances,
and to whom this marvellous power of organic reproduction would be in
every respect a new creation.

The arrangement of plants in the three great classes of cryptogams,
seed-bearing herbs, and fruit-bearing trees differs in one important
point--viz., the separation of herbaceous plants from trees--from
modern botanical classification. It is, however, sufficiently natural
for the purposes of a general description like this, and perhaps gives
more precise ideas of the meaning intended than any other arrangement
equally concise and popular. It is also probable that the object of
the writer was not so much a natural-history classification as an
account of the _order_ of creation, and that he wishes to affirm that
the introduction of these three classes of plants on the earth
corresponded with the order here stated. This view renders it
unnecessary to vindicate the accuracy of the arrangement on botanical
grounds, since the historical order was evidently better suited to the
purpose in view, and in so far as the earlier appearance of
cryptogamous plants is concerned, it is in strict accordance with
geological fact.

A very important truth is contained in the expression "after its
kind"--that is, after its _species_; for the Hebrew "_min_," used
here, has strictly this sense, and, like the Greek _idea_ and the
Latin _species_, conveys the notion of form as well as that of kind.
It is used to denote species of animals, in Leviticus i., 14, and in
Deuteronomy xiv., 15. We are taught by this statement that plants were
created each kind by itself; and that creation was not a sort of
slump-work