Classification of Plants 



167 



and swim about by means of tiny lashes attached to them. 

 They are extremely small, and can only be seen by means of a 

 microscope. Underneath the stars on the other stalks, pro- 

 tected by delicately fringed curtains, are bottle-shaped bodies, 

 each containing a tiny egg -cell. 

 These are sought out by the little 

 swimming bodies, which unite with 

 them just as the nucleus in pollen 

 grains unites with the egg-cell in an 

 ovule of higher plants. As a result 



Fig. 172. — Marchaiitia polyiiiorpJia. I. Thallus with five anther-bearing umbrellas. 

 II. Thallus with an umbrella bearing the egg pockets beneath. (From Thom6 and 

 Bennett's " Structural and Physiological Botany.") 



of this union, the egg produces a little oval body on a short 

 stalk. When this ripens it bursts open, and a golden dust of 

 spores is blown about. These spores grow into new plants, 

 just like the little buds. 



In moist greenhouses a liverwort is often found, that depends wholly 

 on the buds for starting new plants. They are held in crescent-shaped cups. 

 The name of this Liverwort is Lnuularia. 



Mosses^ like liverworts, grow best in moist, shady places. 

 We can find mosses on the ground under the shade of bushes 

 and trees, or on the trunks of trees, but they grow best in moist 

 woods or ravines. If no woods are near, look on thatched 

 roofs, which are often beautifully green with moss on the 

 shaded southern slope. 



