32 MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS 



by the growth of a delicate little plant with tiny 

 green leaves, scarcely more than the tenth of an 

 inch high, and bearing only a distant resemblance 

 to the form that it will eventually take. 



The next step in our story brings us to the 

 flowering part, or Inflorescence ; for though 

 mosses are commonly known as " flower less 

 plants," this is really only the popular way of 

 saying that they cannot boast of anything which, 

 in outside appearance, corresponds with the 

 brilliantly coloured parts of the familiar plants 

 of our hedgerows and gardens, which we designate 

 by the word "flowers." A botanist, however, 

 looks at the matter from a different point of 

 view, and to him a flower may generally be said 

 to be the part of the plant which contains the 

 reproductive organs the bodies, that is, to which 

 is specially assigned the duty of providing for 

 the production of fresh individuals. Thus, in the 

 case of most ordinary flowers, coloured flower- 

 leaves, or petals, enclose the stamens and seed- 

 vessels, which constitute the reproductive organs, 

 and by means of which ripe seeds may be formed. 

 Using the word in this wider sense, mosses are, 

 as we shall see, entitled to rank as flower- 

 producing plants. 



On examining various pieces of moss with a 

 glass, a number of tiny bud-like growths will 

 often be noticeable; these become all the more 

 prominent when seen in the microscope, more 



