Classification of Plants 



225 



Fig. igS. — Geaster (earth-star). 



veil of interwoven mycelium which was attached to the edge of 

 the umbrella (pileus) and protected the gills. The stalk of 

 this one stands in a cup which, like the ring, is the remains of 

 a protecting veil. But 

 this one extended over 

 the cap. When the cap 

 pushed through, parts of 

 the veil made the rough 

 patches on the cap. Do 

 not eat this kind. The 

 rough cap tells of the cup 

 below, and a Mushroom 

 is quite apt to be poison- 

 ous if it has a cup at the 

 base. 



Puff balls are a kind 

 of Mushroom. When you 

 pinch them the spores come out in a cloud. The earth star 

 is a pretty little puff ball, which looks like a star, and grows 

 close on the earth in the spring. An outer cover or peridium 

 splits back when the spores are ripe and forms the star. 



C. Bacteria. — These are minute organisms frequently 

 known as "germs". They each have a distinct life history; 

 and while they are generally under a ban as disease-producing, 

 many are necessary in the economy of Nature. They are, like 

 fungi, destitute of chlorophyll, yet they can live under a great 

 variety of conditions, in either the presence or absence of light, 

 air and organic matter. 



Division II. — Bryophyta. 



Two well-defined stages characterize this group, each one 

 bearing reproductive bodies from which the other is derived. 

 In this alternation of generations the stage which arises from 

 the union of the sexual cells, tlie sperm- and the egg-cell, 

 and bears the spores, remains dependent upon the stage 

 which bears the sexual cells. It contains the liverworts and 

 mosses. 



Liverworts are often flattened green plants, growing in 

 I ^ 



