THE PLANT AS A PARENT 65 



aerial ones which bear their seeds in a more ordinary 

 manner. We may suppose that the seeds which 

 are so carefully sown by the plant are put into 

 position in order to make quite certain that the 

 species shall continue to hold its own on that 

 particular spot. 



The large number of plants which do not pro- 

 duce flowers make comparatively little provision 

 for the welfare of their offspring. The early 

 observers were much puzzled as to how it was 

 that Ferns which appeared never to produce seed 

 were able to increase their kind. It was not 

 until the coming of the microscope that the strange 

 life history of the Fern was understood. An 

 examination of the brown patches to be found 

 on the back of many Fern fronds shows them to 

 be groupings of strange little stalked cases, called 

 sporangia. At a certain stage in their existence 

 these sporangia burst open, and scatter their 

 contents to the winds of heaven. This matter 

 is formed of numbers of individual grains, in form 

 varying largely in the different species. These 

 spores are very different in their formation from 

 the seeds of flowering species ; each one is little 

 more than a speck of life in an elementary form. 



Although the process of development from the 

 spore to the Fern plant varies considerably, a 



