SPORES 
3 
Some one of these tiny beings may have a notch or groove 
around its middle, as though an invisible belt were drawn too 
tight. Watch it for half an hour or less, — the groove gets 
deeper, till the two parts of the cell are held together only 
Spore case by a thread of protoplasm. When this 
breaks, the two parts swim away as in¬ 
dependent beings. 
Spore9 
Describe the reproduction of a one-celled 
animal. 
Food-absorbing 
threads v 
Figure 3. — A Diagram of Black Mold. 
The more highly magnified spore case is 
just ready to break open and scatter the 
spores. 
Spores. — In some plant forms, for ex¬ 
ample green mold and black mold, the 
Figure 4. —A Fruit- parent cell breaks up into many specks of 
ing Moss Discharg- protoplasm, called spores , the dust of the 
ing Spores. mold. When a spore falls upon some food 
material which is moist and of a suitable temperature, it takes 
in food and grows into a form like the parent. Ferns and 
mosses, and, in fact, nearly all plants of the lower kinds, re¬ 
produce by means of spores. It is a method by which a 
plant produces many offspring in a short time. 
1. How are spores formed ? 
2. What advantage is there in this method ? 
