PLANTS WITHOUT FLOWERS 



121 



The class may take up 

 the following concerning 

 the fern. Any commor 

 fern will answer for study 

 See the whole plant, with 

 leaves(fronds),undergrounu 

 stem or root stalk, and roots 

 coming off from this. Ex- 

 amine the leaves and find 

 on the backs of some the 

 spore-bearing organs. These 

 are arranged differently in 

 different ferns. In many, as 

 shown in figure 75, they are 

 in round dots. Examine 

 with a hand lens these dots, 

 and each dot will be found to 

 consist of a bunch of little 

 roundish knobs, each knob 

 born on a small curved 

 stalk. Figure 76 shows one 

 of these stalks with the 

 surmounting knob highly 

 magnified. The little knobs 

 are capsules which con- 

 tain spores (fig. 76). The 

 stalk with the capsule is 

 called a sporangium. 

 When the spores are ripe 

 . . the stalk straightens out, 



Fig. 75. A leai of a fern showing the underside 



with numerous dots which are made up of the the Capsule breaks Open and 

 spore-bearing organs. 



the spores fall out. 

 By sowing the spores under proper conditions and caring for 



