22 
THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD 
What is moss? 
we cook our meat and keep our apples in the 
ice box, neither of these enemies will attack 
them for a long time. Bread should be kept cool 
and dry and away from the air where the spores 
of bread mold are always floating. 
Bread molds belong to a family of plants 
which are called fungi. Other members of the 
family which you may know are these: mush¬ 
rooms, wheat rust, puff balls, and the large fun¬ 
gus brackets which are often seen on trees. 
These different kinds of fungi do not look at all 
alike, but they are known to belong to the same 
family because they are not green and cannot 
make their own food and because they do not 
produce seeds but form new plants by dividing 
cells or by making spores. 
The plants of the moss family are very simple. 
They are not quite so simple as the algae, for 
they are able to live on land. They have roots, 
stems, and leaves. All of these parts are very 
simple, but they are a step towards the higher 
plants which are now so common. The algae 
were probably the first plants in the world. 
