MYSTERIES AND REVELATIONS OF THE PLANT WORLD 



BY D. LANGE 



(WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 





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THE GREAT Swedish naturalist Linnaeus, the father 

 of modern scientific nomenclature, described about 

 10,000 different plants. Since his time scientific 

 explorers have gone out to all parts of the earth to con- 

 tinue the census of the plant world, but to this day the 

 census is still so far from complete that every year a 

 hundred or more field men can each bring large collec- 

 tions of new species to the great herbariums of Europe 

 and America. So vast has grown the number of plants 

 discovered and described that if Linnaeus could come 



back to his be- 



loved Upsala, 

 he would be 

 lost in his own 

 realm, for his 

 modest census 

 of 1 0,000 plants 

 has grown to 

 the bewildering 

 total of 250,000 

 and will very 

 likely pass 

 300,000 before 

 the last returns 

 are in, if in 

 fact, there will 

 ever be any last 

 returns. 



Of this vast 

 number of 

 plants probably 

 about 1 0,000 

 are trees rang- 

 ing in size from 

 the dwarfs, 

 four feet high 

 to the giants 

 that reach 

 nearly four 

 hundred feet 

 toward the 

 clouds. About 

 150,000 species 

 would be class- 

 ed as flowering 

 plants, includ- 

 ing grasses, 

 herbs, trees, 

 vines and small 

 woody p 1 a nts 

 of all kinds. 



The delicate ^"'^ birthplace of the "father of waters- 



frnnrlprl fprric "^^ great Mississippi River starts as a small beaver stream under the roots of a fallen tamarack in 

 ironaea lerns H^^^^ Forest, Minnesota. 



and their allies, the highest of the flowerless plants, would 

 be represented by about 3,000 species mostly from tropi- 

 cal regions ; and the tiny mosses, the humble pigmies 

 among leaf-bearing plants, would add 16,000 species to 

 the list. 



The remarkable plants known as algae, which float as 

 threads of green scum, or live as little green balls in 

 water or moist places, or grow in the sea like the giant 

 kelp, swell the census by at least 15,000. 



The list would close with about 65,000 of that wonder- 

 fully d i V erse 

 class of vege- 

 tables forms 

 known as fun- 

 gi. This class 

 inc 1 u d e s the 

 small one-celled 

 yeast plants, 

 the par asitic 

 blights, rusts 

 and smuts, the 

 V a r i ous um- 

 brella - shaped 

 fungi popularly 

 known as 

 m u s h r o oms 

 and toadstools, 

 the puffballs 

 and many oth- 

 ers. Each one 

 of the 300,000 

 species lives 

 and grows in 

 its own pecul- 

 iar way, but of 

 very few do we 

 know anything 

 that approaches 

 a complete life 

 history. 



Among this 

 countless |host 

 of plants some 

 species like 

 certain orchids 

 are so rare that 

 several thous- 

 and dollars 

 have been paid 

 for one plant, 

 while others 

 flourish in as- 

 sociat ions so 



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