CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 



MOSSES AND FERNS 



1. General Grade of Development. Just above the 

 green water plants, called algae, and the colorless fungi, 

 including molds, mushrooms, toadstools, and the like, we 

 find some green plants that begin 

 to look more like the higher plants 

 with which we are familiar. 

 Among these are the mosses and 

 ferns. In them we find for the 

 first time a clear differentiation 

 between roots that take up water, 

 leaves that manufacture food, and 

 stems that connect the leaves and 

 the roots. The lower plants have 

 no such clear differentiation of 

 their bodies. 



The mosses and ferns are not so 

 well developed as the higher seed- 

 bearing plants, but they have so 

 many of the characteristics of the 

 higher plants that no one can get a 

 real understanding of the seed- 

 plants without a study of these 

 lower forms. Furthermore, the 

 method of reproduction in mosses 

 and ferns will help us understand 

 what happens in the higher plants. 



hignre 17. An individual 

 mature moss plant, show- 

 ing general similarity of its 

 body to that of higher plants. 

 From Coulter's Plant Life 

 and Plant Uses. 



n 



