76 Life and Love. 



In the vegetable, as in the animal world, all de- 

 grees of complexity are observable in the method 

 of reproduction. 



The fern, for instance, as a part of its reproduc- 

 tive activity, employs the primitive method of cast- 

 ing off buds from the skin; from the under side of 

 the leaf, as a rule, it gives forth tiny spores in 

 countless numbers. These spores are enclosed in 

 cases symmetrically arranged in groups, sometimes 

 along the margin of the leaf, sometimes along the 

 central rib, sometimes thickly clustered over other 

 parts of the surface. 



The leaf so given up to spore-bearing is fre- 

 quently different from the other leaves, being 

 smaller, thicker, duller. It is the old story; its 

 nutrition having gone to the making of spores, 

 there is little left for the leaf itself. 



Every one knows the fern in its spore bearing 

 state, its fronds heavily laden with the dark-brown 

 or black or other colored patches of spores or 

 " dust." 



These spores are necessary to the reproduction 

 of the plant, but are not true seed, for those are the 

 product of a higher form of plant life. 



The ferns, the mosses, and all the flowerless 

 plants belong to the lower ranks of plant life; 

 they are the jelly-fishes and sea-squirts, as it were, 

 of the vegetable world, and have a complicated 

 reproductive method, of which the spore-bearing 

 stage is but a part 



