APRIL AWAKENING. 29 



color, they readily attract attention by their odd 

 appearance, and are interesting to consider. 



These singular cone-crowned shoots which pre- 

 cede the barren stems or branches, growing so 

 abundantly all through the summer, are the only 

 flowers that such plants have. Pluck the tallest 

 one and notice the grooves along its length and 

 the whorls of dark brown teeth which surround 

 the joints at regular intervals. Examine the 

 cone-like spike ; it is composed of shield-shaped 

 scales which indeed, at first might be mistaken 

 for those kinds of flowers that are found in the 

 catkins of birches and alders, but look beneath 

 them carefully and you can see neither stamens 

 nor pistils. There are only thin, yellowish white 

 membranes, each one of which is folded not unlike 

 a toy paper whirligig, in six even folds. These 

 are the spore sacks, some of which have already 

 opened and discharged their contents on the 

 ground ; others are yet closed, but when shaken 

 and ruptured, tiny clouds of dust are seen, for an 

 instant, floating in the air. 



If you drop some of this dust on a glass plate- 

 and view it with a microscope you will see that 

 each one of these minute grains is a quite large, 

 globular, roughened body, at the base of which 

 are attached four long threads or hairs which 

 are extended when moist but as soon as they 

 become dry they are tightly coiled about the 



