Steamboat Info (Research)

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsteamship.htm
In 1769, the Scotsman James Watt patented an improved version of the steam engine that ushered in the Industrial Revolution. The idea of using steam power to propel boats occurred to inventors soon after the potential of Watt's new engine became known.
The era of the steamboat began in America in 1787 when John Fitch (1743-1798) made the first successful trial of a forty-five-foot steamboat on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of members of the Constitutional Convention. Fitch later built a larger vessel that carried passengers and freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey.
John Fitch was granted his first United States patent for a steamboat on August 26, 1791. However, he was granted his patent only after a battle with James Rumsey over claims to the same invention. Both men had similar designs.
(It should be noted that on February 1, 1788 the very first United States patent for a steamboat patent was issued to Briggs & Longstreet.)
John Fitch constructed four different steamboats between 1785 and 1796 that successfully plied rivers and lakes and demonstrated, in part, the feasibility of using steam for water locomotion. His models utilized various combinations of propulsive force, including ranked paddles (patterned after Indian war canoes), paddle wheels, and screw propellers. While his boats were mechanically successful, Fitch failed to pay sufficient attention to construction and operating costs and was unable to justify the economic benefits of steam navigation. Robert Fulton (1765-1815) built his first boat after Fitch's death, and it was Fulton who became known as the "father of steam navigation."
Then came American inventor, Robert Fulton, who successfully built and operated a submarine (in France) in 1801, before turning his talents to the steamboat. Robert Fulton was accredited with turning the steamboat into a commercial success. On August 7, 1807, Robert Fulton's Clermont went from New York City to Albany making history with a 150-mile trip taking 32 hours at an average speed of about 5 miles-per-hour.
Right Photo: Steamship at Landing - between 1852 and 1860
In 1811, the "New Orleans" was built at Pittsburgh, designed by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston. The New Orleans had a passenger and freight route on the lower Mississippi River. By 1814, Robert Fulton together with Edward Livingston (the brother of Robert Livingston), were offering regular steamboat and freight service between New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. Their boats traveled at the rates of eight miles per hour downstream and three miles per hour upstream.
In 1816, Henry Miller Shreve launched his steamboat Washington, which completed the voyage from New Orleans to Louisville, Kentucky in twenty-five days. Vessel design continued to improve, so that by 1853, the trip to Louisville took only four and one-half days.
Between 1814 and 1834, New Orleans steamboat arrivals increased from 20 to 1200 a year. The boats transported cargoes of cotton, sugar, and passengers. Throughout the east, steamboats contributed greatly to the economy by transporting agricultural and industrial supplies.
Steam propulsion and railroads developed separately, but it was not until railroads adopted the technology of steam that they began to flourish. By the 1870s, railroads had begun to supplant steamboats as the major transporter of both goods and passengers.
Inventor Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on November 14, 1765. His early education was limited, but he displayed considerable artistic talent and inventiveness. At the age of 17, he moved to Philadelphia, where he established himself as a painter. Advised to go abroad because of ill health, he moved to London in 1786. His lifelong interest in scientific and engineering developments, especially in the application of steam engines, supplanted art as a career. Fulton secured English patents for machines with a wide variety of functions. He was also interested in canal systems. In 1797, European conflicts led Fulton to begin work on weapons against piracy, including submarines, mines, and torpedoes.
He soon moved to France, where he worked on canal systems. In 1800, he built a successful "diving boat," which he named the Nautilus. Neither the French nor the English were sufficiently interested to induce Fulton to continue his submarine design. His interest in building a steamboat continued. In 1802, Robert Fulton contracted with Robert Livingston to construct a steamboat for use on the Hudson River; over the next four years, he built prototypes in Europe.
He returned to New York in 1806. On August 17, 1807, the Clermont, Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, left New York for Albany, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
Robert Fulton died on February 24, 1815, and lies buried in Old Trinity Churchyard, New York City.



http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/transport/fulton.html
Often credited with inventing the steamboat, Robert Fulton was actually the man who put the design into practice. As a young man, Fulton dreamed of becoming a painter and went to Paris to study. His commissions were few, and he turned to engineering and inventions. In Paris, Fulton designed an experimental submarine, which caught the eye of Robert Livingston, then the wealthy American ambassador to France. Livingston convinced Fulton to return to the United States and concentrate on steamboat design.
Fulton's first boat, the Clermont, was tested on the Hudson River. The former painter had shipped a small steam engine from England and constructed a hull similar to that of fast ocean- going ships. In the hull, he placed the engine, and on each side, a primitive paddle wheel. At the test in 1807, the Clermont initially failed; however, after a few adjustments to the engine, the boat carried on its way to Albany, arriving thirty-two hours later. It had moved against the Hudson current at an average of five miles an hour.


First Voyage of the Clermont
Ecstatic, Livingston and Fulton planned to expand. Through Livingston's influence, the two men obtained exclusive rights to run steamboats on New York rivers, as well as on the lower end of the Mississippi. Livingston recognized that the real need for steamboats lay not on the Atlantic rivers, but more urgently on the western veins and tributaries. The next large steamboat, the New Orleans, was constructed in a Pittsburgh boatyard and launched in the fall of 1811 on the Ohio. The boat did well until it reached Louisville, where it began to scrape the bottom; the hull of the New Orleans sat too low in the water for a western river of sandbars and snags. More than three months after leaving Pittsburgh, and having survived a bizarre series of earthquakes, the boat arrived in New Orleans. When it attempted to return to Pittsburgh, however, the crew found that the New Orleans was unable to move against the current above Natchez. Stuck, the boat spent the last two years of its life running between Natchez and New Orleans; finally it ran aground and sank.
The clear moral of the story was that someone needed to invent a more powerful steamboat with a flatter bottom to navigate the inland rivers. Fulton and Livingston bowed out at this point, backing away to concentrate on their eastern investments. Much resentment greeted them in the western territories as it was; tired of eastern failures, those along the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers turned to one of their own. The withdrawal of Fulton and Livingston allowed the rise of Henry Miller Shreve.


http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/fulton.htm
Fulton's First Steamboat Voyage, 1807

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Painter, inventor and engineer, Robert Fulton was a man of many talents. He passionately believed that America's economic future rested on the transformation of its numerous waterways into navigable highways of commerce. He did not invent the steamboat - as early as 1787, American John Fitch had sailed a steamboat on the Delaware River. Fulton achieved his place in history by producing the first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton's success raised the curtain for the commercial development of America's waterways, particularly the Ohio and the Mississippi.


Robert Fulton
from a self-portrait
In 1802 Fulton contracted with Robert Livingstone to build a steamboat that would ply the Hudson River. Livingstone held the rights for steamboat navigation on the waterway. By August 1807, Clinton's boat was ready for a trial run from New York City to Albany and back.
On the afternoon of Monday August 17, the vessel was moored on the East River off Greenwich Village. Aboard were Fulton, Livingston and numerous adventurous friends eager to make the historic voyage. The boat (called the Clermont by history although there is no evidence that Fulton used this name) was an odd looking craft 150 fifty feet long and 13 feet wide, drawing 2 feet of water. Amidships was her engine, a steam boiler that belched flame and smoke as it powered two paddle wheels placed on either side of the hull.
At one o'clock Fulton cast off and began his journey into history. Trouble reared its head almost immediately as the ship's engine stopped shortly after leaving the dock. Fulton soon fixed the problem and the voyage resumed. The boat headed up river at a speed of about 5 miles per hour. Twenty-four hours later the intrepid adventurers arrived at Robert Livingstone's manor house 110 miles up the Hudson. The journey ended the following day after an 8-hour voyage to Albany. The following day - Thursday August 20 - Fulton took on some passengers and began his return voyage, again stopping at Livingston's manor before continuing to New York City the next day.
"It is a foolish scheme"
Fulton described the event shortly after in a letter to a friend. We join his account as the boat is about to depart from its New York City berth:
"The moment arrived in which the word was to be given for the boat to move. My friends were in groups on the deck. There was anxiety mixed with fear among them. They were silent, sad and weary. I read in their looks nothing but disaster, and almost repented of my efforts. The signal was given and the boat moved on a short distance and then stopped and became immovable. To the silence of the preceding moment, now succeeded murmurs of discontent, and agitations, and whispers and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated- 'I told you it was so; it is a foolish scheme: I wish we were well out of it.'
I elevated myself upon a platform and addressed the assembly. I stated that I knew not what was the matter, but if they would be


The Clermont passing West Point
from a contemporary illustration
quiet and indulge me for half an hour, I would either go on or abandon the voyage for that time. This short respite was conceded without objection. I went below and examined the machinery, and discovered that the cause was a slight maladjustment of some of the work. In a short time it was obviated. The boat was again put in motion. She continued to move on. All were still incredulous. None seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own senses"
Observations of a passenger
A visiting Frenchman by the name of Michaux was one of only two new passengers who mustered the courage to book passage on the return trip to New York City. Fear of the boiler exploding scared off any other would-be voyagers. Michaux described his journey in a letter to a friend:
"The vessel was lying alongside the wharf: a placard announced its return to New York for the next day but one, the 20th of August, and that it would take passengers at the same price as the sailing vessels - three dollars.
So great was the fear of the explosion of the boiler that no one, except my companion and myself, dared to take passage in it for New York. We quitted Albany on the 20th of August in the presence of a great number of spectators. Chancellor Livingston, whom we supposed to be one of the promoters of this new way of navigating rivers, was the only stranger with us: he quitted the boat in the afternoon to go to his country residence which was upon the left bank of the river. From every point on the river whence the boat, announced by the smoke of its chimney, could be seen, we saw the inhabitants collect; they waved their handkerchiefs and hurrahod for Fulton, whose passage they had probably noticed as he ascended the river."

http://www.hrmm.org/diglib/oldsteam/chapter2.html
CHAPTER 2
The First Steamboat
Before returning to America, Fulton, after making the compact with Livingston to build a boat on the Hudson, hastened to England to place the order for the engine.
It was built largely after Fulton’s plans and drawings at Boulton & Watt’s shops, in Birmingham, and sent to this country. It had a twenty-four inch cylinder and four foot stroke, while the boiler was twenty feet long, seven feet deep and eight feet wide.
The boat was built on the East River at the yards of Charles Brownne. It was one hundred and thirty feet long, sixteen feet beam, seven foot hold, and drew twenty-eight inches of water. Others give her length as one hundred and thirty-three and one hundred and forty feet and draft as four feet. The paddle wheels were at the side and uncovered. They were fifteen feet in diameter, four feet wide with a dip of two feet. She was named the Clermont after Chancellor Livingston’s country seat on the east shore of the Hudson River in Columbia County.
After many disappointments and delays Fulton left New York for Albany, August 17, 1807, in his little boat, making the trip in thirty-two hours, and successfully demonstrated to the world the possibilities of steam navigation. Others place the date of this first steamboat trip as one week earlier.
Fulton’s own account of that first memorable trip is:
“I left New York on Monday at four o’clock and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Livingston, at one o’clock on Tuesday, time, twenty-four hours, distance, one hundred and ten miles. On Wednesday I departed from the Chancellor’s at nine o’clock in the morning and arrived at Albany at five in the afternoon; distance, forty miles, time, eight hours. The sum is one hundred and fifty miles in thirty-two hours, equal to near five miles an hour. On Thursday at nine o’clock in the morning I left Albany and arrived at the Chancellor’s at six in the evening. I started from thence at seven and arrived at New York at four in the afternoon; time, thirty hours, space run, one hundred and fifty miles. Throughout my whole way, both going and returning, the wind was ahead; no advantage could be derived from my sails; the whole has, therefore, been performed by the power of the steam engine.”
With what solicitous care every stroke of the piston, every turn of the paddle wheels and every pound of steam in the boiler must have been watched by the indomitable Fulton. With what pride he must have written his old friend Joel Barlow:
“The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning I left New York there were not perhaps thirty persons in the city who believed the boat would ever move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility and while we were putting off from the wharf I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way in which ignorant men compliment what they call philosophers and projectors."
It will be noticed that in Fulton’s account of his trip he impresses the fact that under adverse circumstances he made neatly five miles an hour. This fact meant much both to him and Chancellor Livingston. They had procured another enactment by the Legislature giving them the exclusive right and privilege of navigating all kinds of boats by steam, on all the waters of the State for the term of twenty years, upon condition that they would produce a boat of not less than twenty tons burden, which would move with and against the current of the Hudson River at the rate of four miles an hour.
The condition had been fulfilled, steamboating on the Hudson had begun, but many a hard-fought battle was ahead of Fulton and Livingston to protect the “exclusive” privilege the Legislature had given them.
One of the incidents of this first eventful trip of the Clermont, which should not be overlooked, is said to have been the announcement of the betrothal of Fulton to Harriet Livingston, a relative of the Chancellor’s, and whose subsequent marriage has already been noticed in the preceding chapter.
The success of the Clermont as a passenger boat was assured from the first. People would not content themselves with the slow travel of the sloops or stagecoaches when they could go to Albany in thirty-two hours on the steamboat! The dangerous competition, however, was feared by the rivermen. The new steamboat was obstructed by the sloops and fouled intentionally. The very next winter the Legislature was compelled to enact a law imposing a fine and imprisonment on anyone willfully attempting to injure the Clermont or any other steamboat. The same act also provided a five year extension of the exclusive privilege to Livingston and Fulton, for every additional boat they should build and put on the river.
The Clermont was much like a schooner, built with two masts and an exceedingly large funnel, for she burned pine wood under her boilers. She poured out volumes of black smoke, which at night assumed a more startling effect, on account of the sparks that flew out with the smoke.
A writer of the day assures us:
“The crews of many sailing vessels shrunk beneath their decks at the terrific sight, while others prostrated themselves and besought Providence to protect them from the approach of the horrible monster which was marching on the tide and lighting its path by the fire that it vomited.”
One of the farmers who witnessed this strange apparition on the river hurried home and assured his wife and friends he “had seen the devil going up the river in a sawmill.”
As soon as the Clermont’s first season was closed, she was hauled out of the river at Red Hook for several improvements, which the practical operation of the boat had suggested to Fulton’s mind. She was increased in length from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty feet and in beam from sixteen to eighteen feet. Her cabin work was enlarged and her machinery overhauled. The cast iron wheel shaft was replaced by one of wrought iron and outside supports were built for the paddle wheel shaft, relieving the strain that had been manifest from the first. The paddle wheels were also boxed in at the same time. She was renamed the North River and went into regular service on the Hudson at the opening of navigation. Her boiler, however, gave out and after a delay of two months she was fitted with a new one and the boat ran regularly for the balance of the season, with Samuel Jenkins as captain and David Mandeville as pilot.
One of the last survivors of the first trip of the North River to Albany, in a letter written in 1857, describing the trip, says:
“At the hour appointed for her departure, 9 A. M., Chancellor Livingston with a number of invited friends came on board, and, after a good deal of bustle and no little noise and confusion the boat was got out into the stream and headed up the river. Steam was put on and sails were set, for she was provided with large square sails, attached to masts, that were so constructed that they could be raised and lowered as the direction and strength of the wind might require. There was at this time a light breeze from the south and with steam and sails a very satisfactory rate of speed was obtained, and as the favorable wind continued we kept on the even tenor of our way and just before sunrise, next morning, we were at Clermont, the residence of the Chancellor, who with his friends landed and the boat proceeded to Albany, where she arrived at two or three o’clock, P.M."
It cost something to travel by steamboat those days, but the boat did not lack patronage. There was no fare less than $1.00 for any fraction of twenty miles. From New York to Verplanck’s Point it was $2.00, West Point, $2.50, Newburgh, $3.00, Wappinger’s Creek, $3.25, Poughkeepsie, $3.50, Hudson, $5.00, and Albany, $7.00.
Fulton, as soon as he produced a practical steamboat, turned his attention to steam ferryboats for the North and East Rivers. The Jersey was put on the river in 1812 and the York in 1813. These took the place of the old ferryboats which were propelled by driving two or four horses round and round in the hold of the boat. The horses were attached to a pole connected with a gear movement that rotated the paddle wheels. These horse boats were most primitive affairs and very, very slow.
The steam ferryboats produced by Fulton were a great improvement on the old horse boats, in both speed and comfort. They were twin boats having two complete hulls and united by a bridge, shaped at both ends so that they could move in either direction with equal rapidity. One of the boats made the trip across the river loaded with eight four-wheel carriages, twenty-nine horses and one hundred passengers, and it was considered a great feat.
Not only did Fulton devise the ferryboat, but he produced the pontoon or floating bridge-dock that rises and falls with the tides and makes it possible for the trucks and carriages to drive on and off the boats substantially as they do to-day.
Though Fulton’s grave in Trinity Churchyard for years was not marked by any monument, his name was honored in Fulton Ferry and to-day you may take the ferryboat Fulton if you will, from the foot of one of New York’s most busy streets of the same name, and land at the foot of the principal street in Brooklyn, also bearing the same illustrious name. Further, as you leave the ferryhouse on the Brooklyn side you will walk beneath the statue of Fulton, holding in his hand a model of his ferryboat. You have never noticed it possibly. Next time you are going that way, look; it will pay you.


http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110200/steamboathistory.html
Steamboat History

The invention and development of the steam engine revolutionized water transportation. People no longer had to depend on the muscles of rowers or the uncertain wind to propel their ships. In 1769, James Watt, a Scottish engineer, patented a steam engine that could do many kinds of work. Inventors in Europe and the United States soon tried to use it to power boats.
In 1783, the Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans, a French nobleman, built a steam engine that made a 15 minute trip on the Saone River near Lyon. But the marquis was never able to repeat his success. In 1787, John Fitch, an American inventor, demonstrated the first workable steamboat in the United States. Its engine powered a series of paddles on each side of the boat. Fitch later developed a vessel pushed by paddles at the stern. With this boat, he started the nation's first commercial passenger and freight service during the summer of 1790. He navigated the boat on schedule up and down the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey. But Fitch lacked enough money to keepoperating. In 1802, William Symington, A British engineer, built a steam tug that had a paddle wheel at the stern. The tug worked perfectly, but Symington also ran out of money.
The Clemont became the first commercially sucessful steamboat. Robert Fulton, an American, designed and built the vessel, which was officially called the North River Steam Boat. Fulton did not try to construct an engine himself, as earlier inventors had done. Instead, he ordered one from Watt and adapted it to his boat. In 1807, the Clemont ran 150 miles on the Hudson river from New York City, NY to Albany, NY in a day and six hours, including the overnight stop. After extensive rebuilding the boat sailed on the Hudson with regular passenger service. The Clemont was originally very long and slender- aabout 142 feet long and 14 feet wide. After the rebuilding, the Clemont was 149 feet long and18 feet wide.
In 1809 the Phoenix became the first steamboat to make an ocean voyage . John Stevens built it. The Phoenix traveled along the Atlantic coast and up the Delaware river from New York City to Philadelphia. The trip took 13 days. Under perfect conditions sailboats could do it in 2 days.
In 1819 the first steamboat to cross the Atlantic Ocean was the Savannah. It was actually a full rigged sailing ship equippedwith steam powered side paddle wheels. The ship took 29 days to travel from New York City to Liverpool. Its engine lost hours using up its entire fuel supply of 75 short tons of coal and 25 cords of wood on the trip.
In 1858 Sirus the British side-wheeler became the first ship to offer regularly scheduled service across the Atlantic Ocean alone. This trip took only 18.5 days.
For almost 50 years the river steamboat was the prime mover of goods - primarily cotton and sugar - and people in the central United States, and small river towns grew into thriving cities when steamboats began to make regular visits to their docks.

However, it would be fair to say tha Savery was the first person to find a practical way of using steam to perform useful work.
The next stage in the history of the steam engine was a result of the work of Thomas Newcomen, also of England. Newcomen knew that there must be a way of improvingon Savery's inefficient steam powered pump. Newcomen built a machine where the steam actually pushed a movable piston in one direction. This true "steam engine" was also used to pump water out of coal mines. Neither Savery nor Newcomen had any grander purpose in mind for their machines.
This all changed in 1763, when James Watt, a Scottish engineer, set out to improve upon Newcomen's design. Watt figured out a way to push a piston back and forth in its cyclinder. And more importantly, he found out a way to make this back-and-forth motion turn a wheel. By using a "crankshaft," the steam engine could produce circular motion. Watt may not have realized it at the time, but he had just invented the first railroad locomotive.
Unfortunately, Watt didn't have the money to develop his improved steam engine. However, he was able to convince and English manufacturer that building steam engines could become a profitable business. Together with his business partner, James Watt started a company to build steam engines. Of course he must have hoped this his improved steam engine would find many uses in factories. But little did he realize at the time that his machine would forever alter the course of history.

Plant Kingdom Project

Introduction

A plant is defined as a multicellular organism with cell walls that are made of cellulose, and it develops from multicellular embryos. Plants are very interesting organisms and make up an entire kingdom in the Eukarya Domain: Kingdom Plantae. The first land plants evolved from an organism similar to multicellular green algae. These early plants adapted to dry environments, causing several groups to evolve. However, all plants need sunlight, water, minerals, gas exchange, and a transport system in order to survive. Plants have evolved many adaptations in order to meet these select needs in the dry environment on land. They are highly important to life because they are the base of all land food chains and they provide shade, shelter, and oxygen for land animals. They are autophototrophs meaning they make their own food and get energy from the sunlight. Plants use green pigments called chlorophyll a and b to make their own food.

Plant life cycles have two phases called alternation of generations. The first phase is the diploid phase; this phase is known as the sporophyte, or spore-producing plant. The sporophyte forms haploid spores which then grow into haploid gametophytes. This phase alternates with the second phase, the haploid phase, which is also known as the gametophyte, or the gamete-producing plant. In this phase the plant forms gametes, the male and female reproductive cells. During fertilization the male and female gametes fuse together and produce a new sporophyte.

Today plants are split into four basic groups: Bryophytes, Pterophytes, Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms. Each group is slightly similar to another, and each group is determined based upon adaptations such as water-conducted tissue, seeds, and flowers.

Bryophytes are the earliest land plants and have been around for at least 400 million years. Compared to other plants they are very simplistic, and have the least adaptations to land. Their life cycles depend on water to reproduce. Therefore, they usually only grow in wet habitats. If they are in really wet, they can even grow as epiphytes which are plants that grow on other plants. They do not have vascular tissue or other specialized tissues to conduct water and nutrients. They also do not have true leaves, stems, or roots. Instead of roots they have rhizoids, which just anchor the bryophytes to the ground; this is why they grow where the soil quality is poor. Some examples of Bryophytes include mosses (bryophyte), hornworts (Marchantiophyte), and liverworts (Anthocerotophyte). The most commonly found bryophytes are mosses.

In the life cycles of bryophytes, the gametophyte is the dominant stage. It is the only plant with a dominant gametophyte. The sporophyte is also parasitic on the gametophyte; it grows from the embryo which it being held in the female sex organ. However bryophytes can produce sexually or asexually. They have two structures that produce reproductive cells. One structure is called the antheridia which produces sperm cells. The other structure, the archegonia, produces the egg cells. Water is essential to reproducing. During reproduction the sperm cells swim trough the water to fertilize the eggs. After the sperm cells swim through the water to get to the egg cell, the egg is fertilized and is a diploid zygote. This zygote then grows in to a sporophyte which will produce spores. The spores are carried off by will and water and land in another moist habitat. There it will grow into the haploid gametophyte plant. An example of this gametophyte plant would be what we know as moss.

Like most land plants, bryophytes have multicellular sex organs and the gametes are protected by a coating of other cells. Also like other land plants, the zygote is formed in the female sex organ and develops into an embryo. Byrophytes are very important to the environment. They absorb water, which allows them to provide humidity over dry periods, or prevent flooding. Bryophytes also have many important adaptive features to different types of climate, habitat, and surfaces. There are types of bryophytes that have adapted to on growing on rocks, acidic surfaces, or tree bark. There are also types of bryophytes that can thrive in polluted areas, while some can only thrive in unpolluted areas. Some bryophytes even have adaptive features that allow them to grow in areas with less water, as opposed to more delicate moss that grows in very wet areas.

Pterophyte, also known as seedless vascular plants, are really the first true land plants. As opposed to the bryophytes, they have new adaptations. Some adaptations they have are true roots, leaves, and stems. The roots help the plant absorb water and minerals from the ground. The leaves allow the plant to make food through photosynthesis. The stem connects the leaves and roots and is the support system of the plant. However, the most important adaptation they have is vascular tissue. Vascular tissues are special tissues that carry water and nutrients throughout a plant. There are two types of vascular tissues. The two types are phloem, which carries nutrients and food from place to place within the plants, and xylem, which moves water to all parts of the plant from the roots.

In the life cycle of pterophyte, the diploid sporophyte is the dominant stage. Just like the bryophytes, the sporophyte makes haploid spores. In this type of plants, the spores are in structures called sporangia. The sporangia are usually in clusters called sori. They are located on the underside of the fronds which are large leaves with many divisions on it. When the spores are ready, or ripe, they burst from the sporangia. They are then carried by wind and water which is similar to the bryophyte spores. These spores will land, and grow into haploid gametophytes in the right conditions. Pterophytes also have the reproductive organs antheridia and archegonia; they are located on the underside of the gametophyte. Once the organs are mature, the flagellated sperm from the antheridia will swim to the egg in the archegonia to fertilize the eggs. Since the sperm swim to the eggs, they need water to fertilize as well as the bryophytes.

Some examples of seedless vascular plants are ferns, club mosses, and horsetails. Out of the three the ferns are the most common. Ferns have underground creeping stems called rhizomes as well as strong roots. Ferns have fronds which are coiled in bud forming to make “fiddleheads”.

Gymnosperms are oldest surviving plants two types of seed plants, the other being angiosperms. Gymnosperms include conifers, gnetophytes, cycads, and ginkgoes. One of the biggest adaptations of the gymnosperms is they reproduce by producing seeds instead of spores. Gymnosperms are cone-bearing plants meaning they produce seeds directly on the surface of their cones. The seeds that are made by the Gymnosperms are protected by a seed coat. Parts of their stems, when they become old, turn woody which is another distinction between seedless vascular plants.

Gymnosperms also have an alteration of generations and produce a sporophyte and gametophyte. The sporophyte is the dominant stage of the life cycle. The gametophytes are actually made up of only a few cells and grow and mature within the cones. One of the great adaptations that the gymnosperms has is it doesn’t need water to reproduce. It reproduces using seeds not spores, and seeds don’t need water during reproduction. Due to this great adaptation, gymnosperms can live in almost any habitat.

The adaptations that let seed plants reproduce without water are the production of cones, the transfer of sperm by pollination, and then the protection of embryos in the seed.

To reproduce, or produce a seed, the first step is pollination. During this process, the male gametophyte, which fits in to a tiny pollen grain is carried by wind, water, and animals to the female gametophyte, the cone. Once the male and female gametophytes join together, the female egg is fertilized. After fertilization, the zygote grows into a tiny plant called the embryo. When conditions are sufficient, the embryo grows by using a stored food supply inside the seed. The seed coat surrounds the embryo and keeps it from drying out. The purpose of the seed is to protect the zygote of seed plants, and allow it to grow when conditions are right so it has the best chance of surviving. Seeds can be very tolerant of different types of environments such as extreme heat, cold, or drought.

Angiosperms are the most adapted and advanced of all land plants, and the most common. In angiosperms, the sporophyte is the dominant stage, and the gametophyte grows within the plant itself. There are two types of angiosperms: monocots and dicots. Instead of cones, they have reproductive organs called flowers. Angiosperms also use pollination as a way to reproduce. However, unlike gymnosperms, the flowers attract animals which then carry the pollen to other flowers. This is much more efficient then the wind pollination seen in most gymnosperms. Another adaptive feature the angiosperms have is the flowers contain ovaries. These ovaries are a special tissue that covers and protects the seeds. This structure is the part of the flower that in some Angiosperms develops into a fruit.

The life span of an angiosperm can be put in one of three groups. The first group of angiosperms is annuals. Annuals complete their life cycle after one growing season. The next group is biennials. These complete their life cycle after two years, but they produce seeds and die in the second season. The third group is perennials. Angiosperms in this category live through many years. Some even die in the winter and grow back in spring. Some have woody stems; these are what we know to be trees.

Another adapted feature that angiosperms have is a tube that receives the pollen called the stigma and style. This is called the style. In angiosperms there are both male and female reproductive organs. The male organs are the anther and the filament. The anther holds the pollen grains. Animals pass the pollen from flower to flower. Once pollen from one flower makes it to another flower, it goes to the female reproductive organs which include the stigma, style, ovary and ovule. The pollen grain goes in the stigma and down the style. It goes into the ovary where it then meets the ovule and fertilizes it. This develops into the seeds and they either are released when the time is right, or the ovary matures into a fruit.

Monocot is the more simplistic of the two types of angiosperms. The two are split and named for the number of seed leaves it has. Mono- means one or only, thus monocots only have on seed leaf, or cotyledon. A cotyledon is the first leaf that appears on the embryo of a plant. Besides seed leaves there are many other differences between monocots and dicots. Monocots have a unique arrangement of veins in the leaves. The veins run parallel down the leaf in straight or slightly curved line. The petals and other floral parts in a monocot usually are in multiples of three. Another feature is their stems have vascular tissues arranged in a complex array of bundles. Monocots also have a more fibrous root system. The roots don’t go as deep and they are more spread out widthwise. Examples of monocots include lilies and irises.

Dicots, also called eudicots (true dicot), is the more complex of the two types of angiosperms. As opposed to the monocot, the dicot has two cotyledons because di- means two. The veins in the leaves of a dicot are not parallel, but instead they branch out from the center bottom of the leaf where the stem is located. Another difference in the dicot is its vascular tissue is arranged in a more organized, ring structure. Dicots also have floral parts and petals in certain multiples. However their floral parts are in multiples of four or five. Dicots even have a different root structure than monocots. Their roots usually have a taproot present, which is where there is a central root that goes farther into the soil and has other roots branching off from it. Examples of dicots include, hydrangea, sunflowers, pansies, oak tree, maple tree, and petunia