64 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



iiarcissus ; while every seed-like body is in reality a 

 representative flower-bud, which only expands after 

 being cast away from the parent, and develops the 

 true seed at a distance from it. This wonderful 

 process, it may be well to repeat, is unique among 

 plants, so far at least as known, and gives the race a 

 most striking individuality. 



Next in familiarity to the ferns are the Mosses, — 

 those delicate little velvety or lace-like plants that 

 spread themselves over the bark of old trees, on moist 

 rocks, upon hedge-banks, on old cottage-roofs, espe- 

 pecially if composed of thatch, — that grow, in fact, 

 in almost every habitat that can support life. The 

 flowers of these, though extremely minute, can be 

 made out much more readily than those of ferns. 

 While the plant still seems no more than a tuft of 

 minute leaves, deep down amid the recesses of the 

 foliage there are developed tiny organs analogous to 

 stamens and pistil ; the latter, on being fertilized, is 

 elevated upon a stalk as fine as hair, and then we get 

 those pretty little capsules, fat and green, or ruddy 

 and half pendulous, that show so conspicuously to the 

 observant eye in early spring. They are more like 

 choice flowers than like seed-pods, and are so organ- 

 ized as to exhibit some of the phenomena that pertain 

 to the very highest races of plants. The rim of the 

 capsule is set round, for instance, with delicate and 

 movable rays, resembling the white border of a daisy. 



