6 FLOWERLESS PLANTS 



cryptogams that the plant, prior to any process 

 of fertUisation, gives rise to the spores. When 

 we come to the next group, the mosses, we are 

 faced with a very different state of affairs. 

 Here, the principal growth, the moss plant, is 

 concerned with the question of fertilisation. 

 Sexual bodies are produced on the shoots, and 

 after the union the spores are developed almost 

 in the form of a fruit. Subsequently, by a 

 process of cell extension, the spore develops 

 into a net-work of growth from which arise 

 the moss plants. Coupled \%ith the mosses 

 are the liverworts, plants which are not 

 very well known, save to those who have 

 specially studied them. In many ways the 

 hverworts bear a close resemblance to the 

 mosses, although there are certain points which 

 make a sharp division possible. 



At the end of the great hst of plant forms 

 are placed the algse, the lichens, and the fungi. 

 An enormous number of species are grouped 

 together under the term algae. These range 

 from the showy marine weeds, do\™ to more 

 or less minute water forms which are not at 

 all conspicuous, and may be quite invisible to 

 the naked eye. jNIany kinds of algse are able to 



