120 SPOROPHYTE [CH. IX 



The form is known as the Oophyte* or egg-bearing 

 plant ; it is a minute moss-like organism which no one 

 would suspect of being a fern, and is commonly to be 

 found growing in the flower-pots in ferneries. 



The form 8, known as the Sporophyte or spore-bearing 

 plant, is what is familiarly known as the fern plant. 



In the next chapter the details of the reproductive 

 acts by which oophyte produces the sporophyte and vice 

 versa will be considered. We now pass on to the general 

 structure of the sporophyte. 



Sporophyte of Pteris, the Bracken Fern. 



The part which we see above ground, with an up- 

 right stalk subdividing and bearing leaflets, is a leaf; 

 the stem from which it grows is underground and, as 

 in the case of the sedge (fig. 6), is called a rhizome. 



The subterranean stem creeps horizontally below the 

 surface and sends up leaves year by year. The fern serves 

 as an example of a manner of life differing from those 

 hitherto studied, and one that is common among plants. 

 The sunflower is an annual, dying down after it has borne 

 fruit, and beginning next year's cycle in the seedling stage. 

 The oak is a woody perennial, in which the parts above 

 ground are permanent. The fern is a herbaceous peren- 

 nial, in which the parts above ground (the leaves) behave 

 like the stems of annuals and die down to the level of 

 the ground; but they differ from the leaves of annuals 

 in springing from a stock or perennial underground stem. 



1 The term gametophyte is commonly used as an equivalent for 

 oopJiyte, 



