Pond Life 
Descendants of some of the first 
plants exist in Australia and New 
Zealand, and one plant in England on 
a small scale reminds us of what then 
grew in forests of a much greater 
size. The mare’s-tail,a common pond 
and marsh plant, still survives, though 
much reduced in size, and is accordingly 
one of the most ancient of things. For 
its ancestors grew and throve long 
before any mammal walked or bird flew 
over the earth. Many long ages passed 
before any plants such as we know 
first appeared, with all their wonderful 
contrivances and arrangements for the 
due ripening and planting of their seeds. 
We have seen how the insects and birds 
work for the plants, taking their wages 
in honey and fruit. There are thou- 
sands of ways of doing this, besides 
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