FERNS AND THEIR RELATIVES 



the mosses grow large and feathery or fern-like. In 

 countries where the weather is always cool and moist, the 

 mosses are perhaps the loveliest of all their plants. 



Should you guess that the plant in Fig. 29, the scouring 

 rush or horse-tail, is also a relative of the ferns? It is even 

 more particular than the fern about being in a very moist 

 place. Very early in the spring you may find branches 

 like No. 2, coming up from a sturdy underground stem. 

 Later on, stalks like No. i develop, and grow to be several 

 feet high before the summer is over. They are harsh and 

 brittle and can be used for scouring. Think out the use of 

 this hard substance to the plants themselves. The stalks 

 that come up first end in pretty cones several inches long. 

 You have only to handle these cones to see that they are 

 covered with tiny branches that bear cases full of green 

 spores. No. 3 is a single branch enlarged. If you moisten 

 some spores and watch them, dry under the microscope, they 

 will seem to be jumping about in a very lively way. This 

 is because each spore has four arms that coil about it when it 

 is moist, but spring back suddenly as the spore dries. 

 When these spores chance to alight in. the right sort of 

 place, they grow into little flat, green bodies, similar to 

 liverworts or the first stage of the fern ; but the growth 

 from the spore is very slow, so it is best for*the old plants to 

 live on ; and they do live, probably for centuries ; that is, 

 the same underground stems go on sending up spore-bear- 

 ing and food-making stems year after year. In the course 

 of time the interlacing and matted underground parts form 

 thick peat bogs, and in some countries this peat is used for 

 fuel. 



Ferns and their relatives grow in greater variety, and 

 attain much greater size, in countries that are hot and moist 

 all the year round. On the Island of Jamaica there are 

 places where one can find fifty kinds of ferns in as many 

 yards. Some of these tropical ferns climb up tree trunks, 



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