FERNWORTS AND SEED-PLANTS. 6 1 



"cushion," as it is called, are produced the sexual organs. 

 (See further under Reproduction, Part III.) 



70. Reduction of gametophyte. — In a few of the fernworts 

 the gametophyte is filamentous, or tuberous, and more or less 



Fig. 75. — Sporophyte of a fern, Polypodium vulgare, showing horizontal underground 

 stem, bearing secondary roots and leaves. Natural size. — From Bessey. 



completely subterranean and colorless. Such prothallia derive 

 their food from decaying plant-offal. 



In higher plants of this group the gametophyte becomes 

 still further reduced in size and structurally simplified, until 

 in some species it is hardly more than a few cells surrounding 

 the sexual organs. These reduced forms grow by the use of 



