74 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
like pieces of protoplasm that are wandering over the 
surface of the plant. It would seem that this jelly is not 
only easy to pierce, but actively attractive through some 
chemical secretion. Once having reached the top of the 
bottle, the visitors speedily bore their way down the neck, 
and reach the mother-cell. The two different forms of 
protoplasm now become one, and fertilisation 
is complete. The mucilage, its task done, 
dries up and disappears, and the new moss- 
fruit is ready to begin the life history. of 
the second generation. For a little time it 
remains quiet, and the first sign of action 
is the building up of a long stalk, which 
carries it far above the old base at the tip 
of the branch. This stalk you must often 
have noticed, with the nodding red capsule 
at the end, and it is, so to speak, the trunk 
of the new tree. At the base of the stalk 
is a sort of foot, which plants the whole 
firmly in the original moss plant. The new 
generation still draws some nourishment 
from the mother, but by no means all. 
During growth, the green cells are working 
away to make carbon products, and all that — 
they demand from their base is water and 
the mineral substances that can be got from 
the soil. The second generation, in fact, 
bears much the same relation to the first as the mistletoe 
to the apple or birch tree on which it has been planted. 
Meanwhile growth proceeds fast. The outer skin of 
the flask, which was content to stretch for a while to 
meet the swelling of the contents, is at last forced to 
split, and the upper half is borne triumphantly aloft on 
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