154 motam 



surface small, plant-liko objects about half an inch 

 high, and of a lighter green, grayish, or even of 

 brighter color. On one liverwort expanse these blos- 

 soms, for they are what serve this lichen for blossoms, 

 are shaped exactly like the little leather-colored 

 fungi that abound over some spot where wood has 

 decayed or a hayrick has once stood. Here they 

 stand, tiny fringe-edged umbrella-like things, and here 

 on the next liverwort is something quite different ! 

 The growth on this other leaf is also about half an 

 inch high, and looks as if the fairies had been making 

 toys and imitating the little tin trumpets w^hich boy- 

 children love to blow. These atomic trumpets stand 

 mouths up, but the edge of the mouth is waved or 

 scalloped. Now bring the microscope to bear again 

 and these little umbrellas appear to be made of 

 glittering spun glass, abundant in gay fringes. 

 These umbrella or mushroom-shaped growths answ^er 

 to the pistils of flowering plants, and are nothing 

 more nor less than seed-discs ; that is, spore pro- 

 ducers. As in flowering plants it takes two to make 

 a bargain or produce the future plant, the pistillate 

 liverwort, or what answers to the pistillate form of 

 higher organizations, must be fertilized by wdiat 

 represents the staminate growth. That is supplied 

 by the liverwort which bears the trumpets or clubs, 

 whichever we choose to call them. We will find 



