The Relation of Fungi to Other Plants 
learn with the microscope that the pond scums which he had 
thought disgusting frog-spittle are in truth tangles of exquisite 
a plants, made up of chains of slender, transpar- 
Pistil of Pistilof and afterwards, in succession, 
violet St. Johns- 
wort 
those less and less conspicuous. 
They, in reality, present them- 
selves in great natural groups, readily distinguished 
by well-marked characteristics. 
Seed-box of sacred bean 
mens, pistils, seed-boxes, and seeds. 
The humble grasses, with their close 
of the sil- 
ver fir 
wind. 
trust to the breezes to carry 
their pollen to its goal. 
The pines and their allies 
are a step nearer simplic- 
ity, and do not enclose 
Winged seed their seeds in a seed-box 
at all, but provide them 
with wings for dissemi- 
nation, and leave them exposed to the 
It will be seen, as these 
pass in review, that they are 
conspicuous according as 
ent cells finer than silken threads, each cell 
containing many tiny green par- 
ticles of leaf green, or chloro- 
phyll—the cause of the green 
colour of all green plants. 
At first the most conspicu- 
ous plants attract the attention, 
‘; : 
Seed-box of 
iris 
they are complex. The gorgeous flow- 
ering plants have complicated methods 
of reproduction 
—corollas and 
honey, attrac- 
tive to insects ; 
ingenious sta- 
relatives, dispense with 
gay colours and the as- 
sistance of insects, and SD 
6 
Fern with spores (Polyfo- 
dium vulgare) 
