52 MINUTE MARVELS OF NATURE 



and forty or more different species grew in the 

 British Isles during- the Carljoniferous period ; but 



Fig. 35. Sttin seciion of ivy, sliowiiig rootlets 



to-day we have only half a^dozen or so of their 

 diminutive representatives, whose stems measure 

 scarcely one-tenth of an inch in width. 



Rushes, as every one who has gathered them 



