352 LITTLE FOLKS 
little bags of paint that gives the rose its beautiful color, and in 
sage and mint leaves, the tiny sacks of scented oil. He fishes out 
of the cells of plants the most exquisite crystals ; some plants are 
just packed full of them. Mold and mildew, which housekeepers 
hate, turn out to be forests of beautiful trees, with fruit and flower. 
They grow in this way: The air is full of germs of vegetable life, 
and when they come in contact with moisture, on plants, for 
instance, they will just stick there, throw out little suckers into the 
plant, and proceed to grow at its expense. 
You have seen rust spots on fruit. Some kinds look like little 
cups full of reddish powder ; others, that look to you like black 
dots, are really little brown bottles, filled with powder. Then there 
are the lichens, larger than mold, and not so large as moss. 
Some kinds of lichens, such as you've seen growing on old fences, 
are little baskets full of seeds. The edges of the baskets are 
fringed, and when the seeds are ripe the fringe bursts open and 
scatters the seeds. 
Linnaeus, who was a great botanist, calls the mosses workmen, 
because their work in life is to produce vegetation in newly formed 
countries where there is as yet no soil ; to fill and make solid, 
swampy land, and form a soil that larger plants can grow on 
The scale moss, growing at the foot of trees and other shady 
places, has a funny little box for its seeds. If this box is brought 
into a warm room, and a drop of water put on it, it will burst 
violently open and scatter the seeds in a little brown cloud, the box 
itself taking the form of a cross. The scattering of the seeds is 
caused by several little springs, coiled up among them, which 
writhe around like a nestof snakes. 
What do you think of the idea of regular canals running 
through plant-leaves ? You have probably heard that the leaves 
drink in moisture from the air and from rain for the use of the 
root, but I don't believe you ever imagined there was a regular net- 
work of canals to carry the moisture down to the roots. 
Do you know what the pollen of a flower is ? If you haven't 
studied botany, I'll tell you. It is the yellowish powder that you 
sometimes get on your nose when you smell of a flower too closely. 
Well, what seems to you like mere dust, is in truth, most beautiful 
little balls, figured in the oddest and prettiest way. 
Nothing in nature is too small to be exquisitely made and 
ornamented, and the greater power we can get in the instruments, 
