128 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



called, bear instead, in the most exquisitely contrived 

 envelopes, "spores" (from the Greek spora, "a seed"): 

 these are minute grains, the beauty of which could never 

 have been discovered but for the aid of our microscope. 

 The spores perform the function of true seeds, amongst 

 ferns and mosses, and many cryptogamic plants, which, 

 with mushrooms and other fungoid growths, compose the 

 lower orders of vegetable life, often bearing fruit more 

 than a thousandfold, yet without producing any apparent 

 blossom. 



And that we may begin at the right beginning of our 

 chapter, let us pause as we learn a lesson from what we 

 may call "the natural history of the lower orders of 

 vegetable life." 



The " lower orders " have always played a conspicuous 

 part in the interest of life, to whatever species they may 

 have belonged. From the various specimens before us we 

 shall learn much that, while it attracts our attention and 

 astonishes our minds with the care God has taken for the 

 humblest work of His hands, has also a lesson for us to 

 learn; for just as there are "tongues in trees," so are 

 there voices from the lower orders coming to us equally 

 with those of a higher and nobler family, all speaking 

 the same language as the stars, and joining in their 

 grand Hallelujah chorus, " The hand that made us is 

 Divine." 



Look, then, at the spore-case of a garden fern. The 

 edge of the frond is ornamented with a yellowish-brown 

 border neatly running from the base to the tip. We 

 have taken a small piece of this frond to show you the 

 process of fructification. We put it in our stage forceps ; 

 then, placing the forceps in the appointed place, throw a 

 strong light from our lamp through the bull's-eye lens on 

 to the stage. Behold I 



