MOSSES 



187 



5. Allied g^roups of plants are the Water- Ferns {Hydro- 

 2)terides), the Selaginellas (Selaginellacece), and the Club-Mosses 



{Lycopodiacece). A representative 

 of the Water-ferns is Marsilia, a 

 pretty creeping plant with quadri- 

 foliate, folding leaves, common in 

 rice-fields and shallow ponds. The 

 Selaginellas are recognized by 

 their many-branched stems cover- 

 ed by small alternating leaves. 

 They spring up during the mon- 

 soon between Ferns and Mosses 

 on earth walls. The Club-moss is 

 likewise a denizen of moist soil. 

 Selaginella and Club-moss have 

 terminal clusters of spore-cases, 

 whereas Marsilia has them hidden near the root. 



All these families, together with the Ferns, form one large 

 division of the cryptogams, called Pteridophyta. 



Fig. 171.— A piece of coal witli'the 

 impression of a Fern. 



42. Mosses (Musci). 



1. Their Mode of Living. — The Mosses live in large groups 

 or colonies and form beautiful, green carpets on moist rocks 

 or on humid and shady ground, and fantastic ornaments on the 

 trunks and branches of trees. 



The fronds of the Maidenhair Fern, as we have seen, are not 

 in a position to live during the dry season. As they are unpro- 

 tected against dryness, they have to wither and can continue 

 their lives only through spores or through their root-stocks, 

 which bring forth new fronds in the following rainy season. 

 Mosses, however, are so constructed that their leaves simply fold 

 and shrivel up during dry days and recover again after any 

 refreshing shower of rain. 



2. Structure. — A Moss plant consists of a short stem, decay- 

 ing slowly at its lower end and continually growing at its upper, 

 leafy end. It has no proper roots; but the lower end of the 



