46 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 THE FERN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 



1 23. LOOKING about us on every hand we see a vast array 

 of plant life, varying in size and complexity of structure, from the 

 yeast we use in bread-making to the highly organized tree of the 

 forest, and including such diverse forms of growth as the green 

 scums, often called " frog-spittle," that accumulate on ponds in 

 summer, the gray lichens covering rocks and trees, the puff- 

 balls and mushrooms that seemingly develop in a single night, 

 the mosses, ferns, and flowers in all their variety and beauty. 

 We ask where in all this array do our ferns stand, and what re- 

 lations do they sustain to other plants ? In answering this 

 question we can best proceed by giving a tabulated arrange- 

 ment of the plant world, noting here and there in their appro- 

 priate place in the system such forms as are popularly recog- 

 nized. 



1 24. Aside from the plants producing flowers, the ferns 

 and the mosses which are widely known and generally recog- 

 nized, we find two types of plants of lower grade that stand out 

 prominently to even the unpractised eye. Of these the first 

 are mostly green,* and though variously known and named may 

 be called collectively alga. Like the higher plants, these low 

 forms maintain an independent existence, drawing their nour- 

 ishment from air and water. Of the second group we may find 

 examples in the mildew that spreads over leaves of lilac and 

 other plants its white, cobwebby film ; or in the rust, red or 

 black, that injures our fields of standing grain ; or in the black 

 smut that often replaces the ear of corn and greatly disfigures 

 the plant. Other examples may be seen in the shelving masses 

 that protrude from old stumps or logs, or the half-dead trunks 

 of trees still standing, and in the bright scarlet cups that ap- 

 pear on the ground in forests in earliest spring. Whatever the 



* Observant visitors to the seaside are familiar with brown, purple, and 

 bright-red " sea-weeds," that belong here, their green color being masked. 



