plant develops, which is not the fern 

 plant at all, but a structure called the 

 protonema. From a bud produced by 

 the protonema the true fern plant finally 

 appears, which in its turn bears the 

 spores ; and so the cycle is complete. 



Mosses are as varied in size as the 

 ferns, though as a usual thing they are 

 not so beautiful. The long, grey mosses 

 of the southern states are odd in their 

 appearance and in their way, of course. 

 The green, thick moss of the forests is 

 wonderfully beautiful. Mosses, like the 

 ferns, have no seeds. They usually send 

 up a little cup on a stem that holds the 

 spores. It is covered by a cap or lid 

 that flies open when the spores are ripe, 

 and allows them to escape. These cups 

 are often a bright red when the spores 

 are ready to be scattered and can easily 

 be found on common little moss plants. 

 The moss plant has true leaves, though 

 they are sessile, that is, with no petiole. 



Another class of seedless plants which 

 children commonly love is the Equi- 

 setum, horse-tail or scouring rushes. 

 They have no real leaves, but scales that 

 cling closely in a united tube to the stem 

 of the plant. Horse-tail rushes are hol- 

 low with jointed stems which are easily 

 pulled apart. At the nodes, where the 

 joints occur, in some species, branches 

 grow straight out from the side, formed 

 in much the same way as the original 

 shoot. The spore cases are borne at the 



top in a collection shaped something like 

 a cone. On the outside the cases are 

 shield shaped; on the inside they are di- 

 vided into two sacs in which the spores 

 are carried. Each spore is closely 

 wrapped by four thread-like hairs, which 

 cling to it when the spore is wet, but 

 when dry or ripe, spring apart and help 

 to dislodge the spore from the case to 

 the ground, where it can grow. 



Fungi are plants without chlorophyll 

 and so cannot manufacture food for 

 themselves. They are either parasites 

 and consume living bodies, or sapro- 

 phytes and feed on decaying matter. 

 Wheat rust and mildew are parasitic on 

 growing plants, while many of the 

 moulds are saprophytic. Mushrooms, 

 toadstools and puff balls are well-known 

 examples of fungi. The spores of fungi, 

 when they find lodgment on the ground 

 or in the tissues of plants, produce 

 thread-like structures called hyphse ; the 

 whole body is known as the mycelium. 

 It is commonly hidden from view be- 

 neath the ground or in the tissue of a 

 plant, the host of the fungus. The part 

 to be seen is the structure that bears the 

 spores. In the mushroom it has the ap- 

 pearance of a small umbrella underneath 

 which, in folds or gills, are produced the 

 spores. Puff balls are hollow, filled with 

 millions of spores, finer than the finest 

 particles of dust. 



Mary Lee Van Hook. 



A FAITHFUL KENTUCKY CARDINAL 



In Unity, Kentucky, near the home of 

 Robert Butler, a Kentucky Cardinal and 

 his mate began housekeeping in a honey- 

 suckle. All went well with the happy 

 pair, until one day a snake crept into 

 the nest and devoured the mother bird 

 and nestlings. The unhappy husband, 

 forlorn in his grief, spied a red tassel 

 hanging from a curtain pole in the win- 

 dow of Mr. Butler's home. This tassel 

 resembled the female red bird in size 

 and shape. With increasing devotion the 



beautiful but unhappy husband made 

 dozens of trips a day to this window, go- 

 ing through all the motions of feeding 

 the imprisoned mate. After tapping upon 

 the window-pane with his bill for some 

 time, he dropped the morsel upon the 

 sill where a heap of food already col- 

 lected by the bird could always be found 

 and flew away after another choice bit. 

 The devotion of the bird was extremely 

 pathetic. 



Fannie A. Carothers. 



164 



