CHAPTER VI 



spores there are long cells, called elaters, with spiral markings. As 

 the elaters dry, they coil up suddenly with considerable force and so 

 scatter the spores. 



Mosses do not generally form a conspicuous part of California vege- 

 tation, but smaller kinds can always be found in moist weather. The 

 moss frequently chosen as a type in text books of botany, Funaria 

 hygrometrica y is very common in California. It will often be found 

 even along city streets, on gravelly soils shaded by hedges or walls. 

 Its " flowers " are abundant in winter, that is, its clusters of yellow 

 or brown antheridia are plainly visible in the centers of many of the 

 plants, while other plants have archegonia and spore-capsules in 

 various stages. The antheridia are easily mounted, and a high power 

 will usually show escaping sperm atazoids. Archegonia are not so 

 easily found. Ripened moss capsules, or spore-cases, are exceedingly 

 dainty and interesting objects. After the calyptra, which is the 

 remains of the archegonium, and the operculum, or lid, have been 

 thrown off, there are still teeth that act hygrometrically, that is, open 

 and close with varying degrees of moisture, and so control the dis- 

 persal of the spores. Children should, of course, be encouraged to 

 collect the larger and prettier mosses when they are available. 



In spite of the long droughts of California, wherever there are shaded 

 nooks we are pretty sure to find some of our hardy ferns. Ferns can 

 be made a very impressive text for teaching the relation of climate to 

 vegetation. Like liverworts and mosses, they must have moisture for 

 fertilization, but they cannot endure entire dessication as can the 

 other two groups. The nature of their foliage, also, and other condi- 

 tions, render a certain amount of moisture imperative ; so in our 

 country, and in others, there are areas of level, treeless lands, hundreds 

 of miles in extent, quite destitute of ferns. On the other hand ferns 

 are specially adapted to regions of excessive moisture. We have 

 some narrow, sunless canons that illustrate this, but generally chil- 

 dren will have to get this idea from greenhouses and from pictures. 

 Kerner, speaking of the mountain regions of Jamaica, says : " Here 

 are found some five hundred ferns and a large number of mosses and 

 liverworts. The level or sloping ground, rocks, the forest floor and 

 decaying tree trunks, all are covered with ferns of every shape and 

 size ; there are groves of tree ferns, the trunks of trees are invested, 

 right up to the crown, with delicate green fronds, whilst tiny represen- 

 tatives of the filmy ferns have actually taken up their abodes on the 

 foliage leaves themselves." 



Of the ferns mentioned in the Reader, Polypodium Californium, 

 Kaulf., is very common in the coast ranges. It grows rapidly and ma- 



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