32 LIFE OF A TREE. 
minute though they are, but plants which never 
sprang from seed. Any one, too, who has picked 
up the straying sea-weed, torn by the wave from 
its deep home of rock, however varied its ap- 
pearance, has found another instance of a flower- 
less and seedless plant. Wandering also among 
the grave-stones of some old church-yard, and 
picking out of the deep-graven letters some tiny 
and hair-like mosses, we shall fall upon a third 
variety of these plants. And upon the giant 
arms of many a veteran cak, which in our forests 
has braved the ‘ battle and the breeze” for cen- 
turies, behold a fourth kind comes under our 
notice, in the dry and shining lichens which give 
it such a venerable aspect. Down in the deep 
shade of the woods, where the summer brook 
bathes the feet of the thickly-clustered trees, 
springs another kind, the fungi; some, it is true, 
not very attractive in colour, but others painted 
in such delicate flushes of pink and white, as 
might grace many a fair lady’s cheek. The edi- 
ble mushroom belongs to the same class. The 
next family of plants, the ferns, however, will 
supply us with the best and most elegant illus- 
trations of this peculiarity. 
