24 



THE LIFE OF THE PLANT 



Suppose by an effort of imagination you can detach 

 yourself for a moment from your present environment 

 and transport yourself in thought to one of the pictur- 

 esque landscapes of Russia, say the neighbourhood of 

 Moscow, and suppose you try to recall your impressions 

 of a walk down into the ravine of Kunzevo. As you 



Fig. 12. 



descend into the green thicket with its damp atmosphere, 

 impregnated with many exhalations, you will notice 

 quite a singular kind of vegetation. At every step the 

 waving fronds of ferns grow from the floor or the slopes 

 of the ravine, like bunches of green ostrich feathers, or 

 the crowns of palms stuck into the soil (fig. 12). Lower 

 down along the swampy bank of the stream, in the water 

 itself, or in some marshy pool, you will see a brush-like 

 mass of horse-tails crowded together here and there with 



