CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



flowers first ? Besides, if you try to make those ' ' fern 

 seeds" grow, you will see nothing that looks like a fern for 

 a long time. These facts used to puzzle the people of olden 

 times, and have led to some curious beliefs. For instance, 

 fern seeds were supposed to be formed in some mysterious 

 way on midsummer nights. To find them one must go 

 alone at midnight and must repeat certain magic words. 

 For hundreds of years no one seems to have taken the 

 trouble to find out certainly whether the brown specks 

 really were fern seeds. It was not until about fifty years 

 ago that the truth about them was found out. Under the 

 microscope they look like Nos. i, 2 and 3 in the drawing at 

 the end of the chapter. That is, each tiny speck is not a 

 seed, nor even a spore, but a transparent case, somewhat 

 like a watchcase, and it is filled with spores. So the round 

 spots on the underside of the Polypodium are clusters of 

 spore-cases. Kach case has around it a ring of strong elas- 

 tic tissue that has one weak place. When the ring breaks 

 it acts like a spring and straightens itself, tearing open the 

 case and flinging out the spores . Millions of spores simply 

 perish, but here and there one will find a suitable place for 

 growing. You will need sharp eyes to find the first growth 

 from the spores, and you need look only in very shady, 

 damp places. lyittle colonies are sometimes found beneath 

 projecting clods of earth, or on steep north banks shaded 

 by vines and brambles. The strangest part of the story is 

 that the first growth from the fern spore does not in the least 

 resemble a fern. It is a thin, delicate, green scale, not so 

 large as your finger-nail; it lies flat on the ground and is 

 fastened to it by delicate root-hairs. It is pictured in No. 

 4, Fig. 30, at the end of the chapter. Perhaps you will find 

 a plant a little more advanced, like No. 5. The green scale 

 has sent down a little root, and a slender stem is growing 

 up bearing a minute ball that will unfold into a tiny leaf. 

 Soon another leaf grows up, but by this time the first green 



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