32 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



half animal, half vegetable ; with four legs thai 

 were exactly like the stalks of a plant." 



" That was nothing more than a woolly stemmed 

 fern, Barometz, common in the deserts of Scythia, 

 and which, when deprived of its leaves, and turned 

 upside down, is not much unlike a lamb, and has 

 been used to deceive simple people. Ferns are 

 altogether so curious and interesting, that I hope 

 you will one day make them a separate study ; 

 they are the highest forms of flowerless plants, 

 for you must have noticed that all the tribes we 

 have yet spoken of are without blossom of any 

 kind." 



" How strange that they should have seeds, and 

 not flowers !" said Eobert. 



" And that the seeds should grow in such odd 

 places," said Mary ; " some on the backs of the 

 leaves, and some in little cups, and some in urns, 

 and some in clubs." 



" They are not true seeds, therefore you must 

 learn to call them spores. You must also 

 understand that these flowerless plants can bo 

 brought under two great divisions : first, those 

 simple plants in which there is no distinction 

 of leaf and stem ; and secondly, those plants, 



