iS4 MANUAL OP NATURE STUDY. 



a young frond just coming out of the ground, watcll 

 it until it is fully matured and describe its peculiar 

 action. 



These ferns do not produce flowers as all the 

 other plants you have studied, consequently they 

 have no seed factory ; but they have another way 

 of reproducing themselves, which is very interest- 

 ing as well as mysterious. Look on the under side 

 of your fern frond. All ferns are not alike in this 

 respect, but in all probability if you look closely you 

 will find generally along the mid-rib and larger side- 

 veins what at first appears to be a kind of papillae. 

 These papillae, or usually conspicuous bodies on 

 the under side of the pinnae, are called the sort 

 (singular, sorus) or fruit-dots. Observing their posi- 

 tion, notice the thin scale-like covering, indusium. 

 But if you remove the indusium you will find attached 

 generally by very delicate stalks, an oval or spherical 

 body. These free ends are spore cases which con- 

 tain a powdery mass known as spores. This mass 

 of spores is very similar in appearance to the 

 powdery cloud that escapes from a ripened "puff 

 ball." To the naked eye, these spores have no 

 form, but by the aid of the microscope, it is clear 

 that they are just as definite in form as this round 

 earth upon which we live. Strange to say, too, 

 each little spore contains the possibilities of a new 

 plant, just as seeds do in the flowering plant, but 



