88 COMPOUND ORGANS OF PLANTS. 



127. The organs of fructification consist of an ovate or 

 more or less elongated spike composed of thick peltate, pe- 

 dicellate, polygonal scales, very similar to those of the male 

 flowers of the Taxus baccata, or common yew-tree, each scale 

 having several thecse or sporangia attached to its lower sur- 

 face longitudinally dehiscent, and discharging a multitude of 

 little bodies termed spores, each of which is embraced by four 

 hygrometrical clavate filaments called elaters, by which the 

 mechanical dispersion of the spore is efieoted. In Fig. 36 



Fm. 36. 



we have represented the summit of the stem of Equisetum 

 sylvaticum (Dr. Gray's Botmiical Text-Book'); e shows the 

 cone of fructification ; m is a magnified view of part of this 

 cone, exhibiting the peltate polygonal fructification. One of 



