PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 145 



Propagation Of Plants- — Plants are propagated in 

 various ways but chiefly by spores, seeds and separation of 

 parts. 



Spores. — Spores are merely particles of the plant's proto- 

 plasm protected by a special covering. They lack an embyro, 

 are extremely minute and very numerous. Fungi, algae, 

 mosses, ferns and horsetails reproduce by spores. Some kinds 

 may be germinated on a porous brick resting in water so as to 

 keep the surface damp. A microscope is needed to study 

 them. 



Seeds. — Seeds are like eggs in that they contain an embryo 

 and a certain amount of food stored to serve the plantlet 

 until it can work for itself. Were the seeds to fall and 

 remain under the branches that bore them, the young plants 

 would crowd each other and their parent so hard as to starve 

 them all out of existence ; consequently plants have developed 

 a great variety of means of distributing their seeds. 



It pleases the fancy of the children to represent the different 

 kinds of seeds from the point of view of their distribution as 

 flyers, skaters, sailors, balloonists, riders, walkers, creepers, etc. 



Flyers. — What are wings for but to fly? Many seeds or 

 fruits have wings, among which are those of the maples, ashes, 

 tulip-tree, blue beech, pines, spruces, and catalpa. The wings 

 are differently adjusted and shaped in the different kinds, and 

 each kind of seed named has its own way of flying or whirling. 

 They detach not in calm weather, but when the wind is high, 

 so that they may fly far from home before they reach the 

 ground. 



Skaters and Sailors. — Although it is midwinter still some of 

 the pods are hanging on the locusts. A smooth crust is on 

 the snow, the high winter wind snaps or twists off a number 

 of the pods, and carried by the gale they skate a mile or more 



