290 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
devote all their energies to the production of 
staminal leaves and pollen. But all other native 
evergreens produce both sorts of flower on the 
same tree, and they may frequently be seen on 
the self-same branch. 
The ovule of a flower akin to the lily or the 
rose generally wears two coats. But the ovule of 
a cone-bearer has but a single coat, and at one 
point it presents a naked surface to the pollen. 
Because their ovules are not enclosed in pistils 
the cone-bearers and their kin are known to sys- 
‘c 
tematic botany as ‘‘ gymnosperms ’’ (naked seeds). 
They are a last link in the chain which connects 
the flowerless and the flowering plants. 
Naturalists assign the highest rank among flower- 
less plants to the club-mosses, and the selaginellas 
their nearest of kin. 
Two sorts of selaginella are cultivated under the 
name of ‘‘ lycopodium,’’ and may be seen draping 
the stages in greenhouses, or making a moss-like 
mat all over the floor in florists’ windows. These 
plants bear spores of two sorts and sizes, which 
ripen at about the same time, and fall to the 
ground together (Fig. 82). Then the substance 
contained in each of the smaller spores develops 
into a tiny ‘‘male’’ prothallus, consisting of one 
