Through Magic Glasses and Other Lectures

helpmates the spectroscope and photographic plates. But at first sight it would seem as though our microscopes would have to stand idle so far at least as plants are conce

from my thoughts, and as a young rabbit scudded across the path and I watched it disappear among th

wish to find plant life revelling in the cold damp days of winter, fearing neither frost nor snow and welcoming mist and rain, you must go to the mosses, which as autumn passes away begin to cover the wood-paths, to creep over the roots of the tre

afy lichens encircle the branches, their pale gray, green, and yellow patches looking as if they were made of crumpled paper cut into wavy pla

piece of bark with lichen upon it without some little moss coming too, especially the small thread-mosses (Bryum) which make a home for themselves in every nook and corner of the branches; while the feather-mosses, hair-mosses, cord-mosses, and many others made such a lovely car

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Lichens. (

, A leafy lichen. 3,

the

f lichens chiefly by diagrams, for it is too minute for beginners to follow under the microscope, so we must trust to drawings made by men more skilful in m

their larger and stronger companions die down to the ground. We will answer this first as to the lichens, which are such strange unca

e-celled green

ing (Pleu

huret an

e yeast cells we saw when studying the Fungi, only that instead of being colourless they are a bright green. Some of these cells will I suspect be longer than others, and these long cells will be moving over the slide very rapidly, swimming hither and thither, and you will see, perhaps for the

her kinds[2] wave to and fro on the water, forming dense patches of violet, orange-brown, or glossy green scum shining in the bright sunlight, and these flourish equally in the ponds of our gardens and in pools in the Himalaya mountains, 18,000 feet above the sea. Others again[3] seize on every damp patch on tree trunks, rocks, or moist walls, covering them with a green powder formed of single plant cells. Other species of this family turn a bright red colour when the cells are still; and one, under the name

isture and sunlight to help them in their work. Wherever they are, if they have these, they can take in carbonic acid from the air and work up the carbon with other gases which they imbibe with the water, and so make living material. In this way they grow, and as a cell grows larger the covering is stretched and part of

upon all kinds of living matter. This is just what happens in the lichens; and botanists have discovered that these curious growths are really the result of a partnership between single-celled green plants and single-celled fungi. The grey p

and 2 is part of a leafy lichen (2, Fig. 28). The hairy lichen as you see has a row of green cells all round the tiny branch, with fungus cells on all sides of them. The leafy liche

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of Lichen

a hairy lichen

leafy lichen, St

growth of

cells. f

ys in such a position that sunlight, air, and moisture can reach them. From this time the two classes of plants live as friends, the fungus using part of the food made by the green cells, and giving them in return the advantage of being spread out to the sunlight, while they are also protected in frosty or s

or into an orchard where the apple-trees are neglected, for every inch of the

se to the limits of perpetual snow, in the sandy wastes of Arctic America, and over the dreary Tundras of Arctic Sib

in the lichen, out of which, when they burst, small round bodies are thrown, which cover the lichen with a minute green powder. There is plenty of this powder on the leafy lichen which you have by you. You can

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a lichen. (From

Open. 3, The spore-cases and filaments enlarged, showin

the hairy lichen. These cups, or fruits, were once closed, flask-shaped chambers (1, Fig. 31) inside which are formed a number of oval cells sc, which are spore-cases, with from four to eight spores or seed-like bodi

ough a hole in the top, and they are then called perithecia, while i

ry lichens, almost disappear in the summer, they are by no means dead, for, like all these very low plants, they can bear being dried up for a long time, and then, when moisture visits them again, each green cell sets to work, and they revive. There is much more to be learnt about them, but this

tract you away from the dull grey lichens, for of all plant histories i

es, you must give me your whole attention, and I will explain it first

thery moss. (From life

Roo

eafy stem is separate, and can be taken away from the others without breaking anything. In this dense moss each stem is single and clothed with leaves wrapped closely round it (see Fig. 33); in some

. 93), which is much larger and stouter, you can see better how each one of these leaves, though they are so thickly packed, is placed so that it can get the utmost

cause moss multiplies so rapidly that new stems are always thrusting themselves up to the light, but

arsh, you would find a spongy green mass below the growing moss, very much like the green scum on a pond. This film, some of which I have brought home, is seen under the microscope to be a mass of tang

ve, which soon become crowded with leaves, forming the velvety carpet we call moss. Meanwhile the soft threads below die away, giving up all their nourishment to the moss-stems, and this is why, when you take up the moss, you find each stem separate. But now comes the question, How does each stem live after the nourishing threads below have died? It is true each stem has a few hairy

covering glass and examining it for yourself. You will see that it is composed of a number of oval-shaped cells packed closely together (c Fig. 33), with a few long narrow ones mr in the mi

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agnified. (

can take in and work up its own f

ng quite independently of the roots below. Yet at the same time the moss stem has a great advantage over singl

en break off from the tangled mass or protonema below, and, starting on their own account, form other thread masses. Then, after the moss stems have grown, a new mass of threads may grow from one of the tiny root-hairs of a stem and ma

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ommune. A lar

which the antherozoids are formed (enlarged in Fig. 35). p, p1, p2, p3, Minute green flower in which the ovules are formed, and urn-

s the matted threads decay they form a rich manure, and the dying moss-stems themselves, being so fragile, turn back very readily into fo

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cation o

zc′, Antherozoid cell enlarged. z, Free antherozoid. P, Female flower with bottle-shaped sacs bs. bs-c, Bottle-shaped sac, with cap being pus

unded by jointed hairs or filaments (see A and P, Fig. 35). These sacs are of two different kinds, one set being short and stout os, the others having long necks like bottles bs. Sometimes these two kinds of sac are in one flower, but more often they are in separate flowers, as in the hair-moss, Polytrichum commune (a and p, Fig. 34). Now when the flowers are ripe the short sacs in the flower A open and fli

call its seed, which last in ordinary higher plants would fall down and grow into a new green plant. But with the moss there is more to come. The egg does not sha

cap (c Figs. 34, 35) over the top of the stem. Meanwhile, under this cap the top of the stalk swells into a knob which, by degrees, becomes a lovely little covered urn u, something like a poppy head, which has within it a number of spor

pulled them off as you would pull a cap from a boy's head. In nature they fall off after a time, leaving the urn, which, though so small, is a most complicated structure. First it has an outer skin, with holes or mouths in it which open and close to let moisture in and out. Then come two layers of cells, then an open space full of air, in which are the green chlorophyll grains which are working up food for the tiny plant as the moisture comes in to them. Lastly, within this again is a mass of tissue, round which grow the s

s and dies, leaving ten, fifteen, or even more spores, which, after lying fo

when once we master the succession of growths. Starting from a spore, the thread-mass or protonema gives rise to the moss-stems forming the dense green carpet, then the green flowers on some of the leaf-stem

of their urns, yet this sketch will enable you to study them with understanding, and when you find in the wood the nodding caps of the fruiting plants, some r

oss from a Devonshi

ks. I wish we could examine it, for it differs much from other mosses, both in leaves and fruit, but it would take us too long. At least, however, you must put one of its lovely transparent leaves under the microscope, that you may see the large air-cells which lie between the growing cells, and admire the lovely

the borderland between two classes of plant life. On the one hand, they are still tender-celled plants, each cell being able to live its own life and make its own food; on the other hand, they have risen into shapely plants with the beginnings of feeble roots, and having stems along which their leaves are arranged so that they are spread to the light and air. Both lichens and mosses keep one gr

r all pastures which are allowed to grow poor and worn out. They grow, too, in all damp, marshy spots; especially the bog-mosses forming the pe

d far and wide where all else is lifeless, while in moister parts the Polytrichums or hair-mosses cover the ground, and in swampy regions stunted Sphagnums form peat-bogs only a few inches in depth over the frozen soil beneath. If, then, the lichens and mosses can flourish even in such drear

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