PLANT LIFE. 37 



bracket fungi, etc., are the fruiting bodies of some 

 fungi. A few fungi, mainly toadstools and puff balls, 

 are edible and one or two toadstools, e. g., the com- 

 mon mushroom, are cultivated. Let it be noted here 

 that the popular belief that " toadstools are poison- 

 ous, mushrooms edible " is erroneous, since a mush- 

 room is a toadstool. Some toadstools are edible, 

 some are poisonous and none should be eaten unless 

 one is absolutely certain that he has one of the edible 

 kinds. 



Mosses and Ferns, are green plants and therefore 

 make their own food. They are of little economic in- 

 terest aside from their ornamental value. They are 

 mostly small, but in the tropics some ferns attain the 

 dimensions of trees. 



Spores. In all the foregoing plants no real seeds 

 are formed. In most of them the new plants arise 

 from the growth of small bodies consisting of but a 

 single cell and called spores. 



Seeds. In the seed plants we find a great advance 

 in that true seeds are formed. A seed instead of con- 

 sisting of a microscopically small spore, is visible with- 

 out magnification, and is made up of a great many 

 cells. It is, in fact, a small plant which after attain- 

 ing a certain size has stopped growing and become 

 surrounded by a protection layer, the seed coat. 

 This little plant remains in this condition of suspended 

 growth until placed in a favorable location when it 

 absorbs water and starts its growth anew. 



Seed Plants. With the exception of mushrooms, 

 which are fungi, and ferns, all of the plants commonly 

 cultivated for profit or ornament are seed plants. 

 This is also true of the plants of the forests and jun- 

 gles which furnish us with their valuable products. 

 In view, therefore, of their so great importance the 

 remainder of this chapter is confined to a discussion of 

 seed plants. 



EXERCISE. Find and bring to the class specimens of as many dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants as you can and which are not seed plants. 



