126 LABORATORY PRACTICE CHAP, xxxm 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



SPORE REPRODUCTION 



THE plants possessing reproduction by spores are usually 

 much more simple than those which reproduce by seeds. 

 Many of them are decidedly microscopic and hardly, if at 

 all, visible except under the lenses of the compound micro- 

 scope. But others, such as the ferns and the mosses, are 

 larger and more complicated plants, approaching very nearly 

 to the seed-plants in the degree of the complexity of their 

 structure and their size. 



The principal groups of plants which reproduce by spores 

 are the Ferns (in the broadest sense of the word), the Mosses, 

 the Sea-weeds or Algae, the Lichens, and the Fungi (including 

 Toadstools, Puff-balls, Mildews, Rusts, Smuts, and Moulds) . 



Spores are of several kinds, and need extended study with 

 the compound microscope and more complicated methods 

 than we have been using. We may, however, study several 

 kinds in a rough sort of way. 



I. Examine a Fern Plant removed from the soil, and 

 notice : 



1. The stem (usually underground). 



2. The leaves, their shape, size, etc. 



3. The dots upon the backs of the leaves. These are the 



son, which are of different shapes in different Ferns 

 and which, in some cases, are covered partially by a 

 thin skin, called the indusium. 



4. Make a sketch of the Fern Plant to show these points. 



