shape? At what time of day do the flowers open? What color are the
petals when the flowers first open? What is their color later in the
day? What is their color the next day? When do the petals fall?
8. Describe the stamens; how are they joined? How are the anthers
situated on the stamen-tube? Is the stamen-tube perfectly straight or
does it bend at the tip?
9. Peel off carefully the stamen-tube and describe what you find
within it. How many stigmas come out of the tip of the tube? Find the
ovary below the stamen-tube. Which part of the flower grows into the
cotton-boll?
10. Take a boll nearly ripe; what covers it? Push away the bracts;
can you find the calyx still present? What is the shape of the boll?
What is its color and texture? Can you see the creases where it will
open? How many are there of these?
11. Open a nearly ripe boll very carefully. How many partitions are
there in it? Where are they in relation to the openings? Gently push
back the cotton from the seeds without loosening them, and describe
how the seeds are connected with the partitions. Is the seed attached
by its pointed or blunt end?
12. How many seeds in each chamber in the cotton boll? Where on the
seed does the cotton grow? How does the cotton blanket wrap about the
seed? If the cotton is not picked what happens to it? Of what use to
the wild cotton plant are seeds covered with cotton?
13. What makes the cotton-boll open? Describe an open and empty boll
outside and inside.
14. How much cotton is considered a good crop per acre in your
vicinity? How much cotton can a good picker gather in a day?
15. Write English themes on the following topics: “The history of the
cotton plant from ancient times until to-day,” “How the cotton plant
has affected American history.”
* * * * *
“_Queen-consort of the kingly maize,
The fair white cotton shares his throne,
And o’er the Southland’s realm she claims
A just allegiance, all her own._”
--MINNIE CURTIS WAIT.
[Illustration: Photo by Verne Morton.]
THE STRAWBERRY
_Teacher’s Story_
Of all the blossoms that clothe our open fields, one of the prettiest
is that of the wild strawberry. And yet so influenced is man by his
stomach that he seldom heeds this flower except as a promise of a
crop of strawberries. It is comforting to know that the flowers of
the field “do not care a rap” whether man notices them or not; insect
attentions are what they covet, and they are surely as indifferent to
our indifference as it is to them.
The field strawberry’s five petals are little cups of white held up
protectingly around a central treasure of anthers and pistils; each
petal has its base narrowed into a little stem, which the botanists
call a claw. When the blossom first opens, the anthers are little,
flat, vividly lemon-yellow discs, each disc consisting of two clamped
together sternly and determinedly as if they meant never to open and
yield their gold dust. At the very center of the flower is a little,
greenish yellow cone, which if we examine with a lens, we can see
is made up of many pistils set together, each lifting up a little,
circular, eager stigma high as ever it can reach. Whether all the
stigmas receive pollen or not determines the formation of a good
strawberry.
The sepals are slender and pointed and seem to be ten in number,
every other one being smaller and shorter than its neighbors; but the
five shorter ones are not sepals but are bracts below the calyx. The
sepals unite at their bases so that the strawberry has really a lobed
calyx instead of separate sepals. The blossom stem is soft, pinkish
and silky and wilts easily. There are several blossoms borne upon one
stem and the central one opens first.
The strawberry leaf is beautiful; each of its three leaflets is oval,
deeply toothed, and has strong regular veins extending from the
midrib to the tip of each tooth. In color it is rich, dark green and
turns to wine-color in autumn. It has a very pretty way of coming out
of its hairy bud scales, each leaflet folded lengthwise and the three
pressed together. Its whole appearance then, is infantile in the
extreme, it is so soft and helpless looking. But it soon opens out on
its pink, downy stem and shows the world how beautiful a leaf can be.
[Illustration: _Strawberry leaf._]
[Illustration: _Pistillate flower above._
_Perfect flower below._]
If a comparison of the wild and cultivated strawberries is
practicable, it makes this lesson more interesting. Much tillage
and food have caused the cultivated blossoms to double, and they
may often have seven or eight petals. And while the wild flowers
are usually perfect, many cultivated varieties have the pollen and
pistils borne in different flowers, and they depend upon the bees
to carry their pollen. The blossom stem of the garden strawberry is
round, smooth and quite strong, holding its branching panicle of
flowers erect, and it is usually shorter than the leaf stems among
which it nestles. The flowers open in a series, so that ripe and
green fruit, flowers and buds may often be found on the same stem.
As the strawberry ripens, the petals and stamens wither and fall
away; the green calyx remains as the hull, which holds in its cup the
pyramid of pistils which swell and ripen into the juicy fruit. To
the botanists the strawberry is not a berry, that definition being
limited to fruits having a juicy pulp and containing many seeds, like
the currant or grape. The strawberry is a fleshy fruit bearing its
seed in shallow pits on its surface. These seeds are so small that
we do not notice them when eating the fruit, but each one is a tiny
nut, almond-shaped, and containing within its tough, little shell a
starchy meat to sustain the future plant which may grow from it. It
is by planting these seeds that growers obtain new varieties.
The root of the strawberry is fibrous and threadlike. When growers
desire plants for setting new strawberry beds they are careful to
take only such as have light colored and fresh-looking roots. On old
plants the roots are rather black and woody and are not so vigorous.
The stem of the strawberry is partially underground and so short as
to be unnoticeable. However, the leaves grow upon it alternately one
above another, so that the crown rises as it grows. The base of each
leaf has a broad, clasping sheath which partly encircles the plant
and extends upward in a pair of earlike stipules.
The runners begin to grow after the fruiting season has closed; they
originate from the upper part of the crown; they are strong, fibrous
and hairy when young. Some are short between joints, others seem to
reach far out as if seeking for the best location before striking
root; a young plant will often have several leaves before putting
forth roots. Each runner may start one or more new strawberry plants.
After the young plant has root growth so as to be able to feed
itself, the runner ceases to carry sap from the main stem and withers
to a mere dry fiber. The parent plant continues to live and bear
fruit, for the strawberry is a perennial, but the later crops are of
less value. Gardeners usually renew their plots each year, but if
intending to harvest a second year’s crop, they cut off the runners
as they form.
[Illustration: _Strawberry fruit._]
LESSON CLXXI
THE STRAWBERRY
_Leading thought_--The strawberry plant has two methods of
perpetuating itself, one by the seeds which are grown on the outside
of the strawberry fruits, and one by means of runners which start new
plants wherever they find place to take root.
_Method_--It would be well to have a strawberry plant, with roots and
runners attached, for an observation lesson by the class. Each pupil
should have a leaf, including the clasping stipules and sheath at its
base. Each one should also have a strawberry blossom and bud, and if
possible a green or ripe fruit.
_Observations_--1. What kind of root has the strawberry? What is its
color?
2. How are the leaves of the strawberry plant arranged? Describe the
base of the leaf and the way it is attached to the stem. Has each
leaflet a pedicel or stem of its own? How many leaflets are there?
Sketch a strawberry leaf, showing the edges and form of the leaflets,
and the veins.
3. From what part of the plant do the runners spring? When do the
runners begin to grow? Does the runner strike root before forming
a new plant or does the little plant grow on the runner and draw
sustenance from the parent plant?
4. What happens to the runners after the new plants have become
established? Does the parent plant survive or die after it sends out
many runners?
5. Describe the strawberry blossom. How many parts are there to the
hull or calyx? Can you see that five of these are set below the other
five?
6. How many petals has it? Does the number differ in different
flowers? Has the wild strawberry as many petals as the cultivated
ones?
7. Study with a lens the small green button at the center of the
flower. This is made up of pistils so closely set that only their
stigmas may be seen. Do you find this button of pistils in the same
blossom with the stamens? Does the wild blossom have both stamens and
pistils in the same flower?
8. Describe the stamens. What insects carry pollen for the strawberry
plants?
9. Are the blossoms arranged in clusters? Do the flowers all open at
the same time? What parts of the blossom fall away and what parts
remain when the fruit begins to form?
10. Are the fruits all of the same shape and color? Is the pulp of
the same color within as on the surface? Has the fruit an outer coat
or skin? What are the specks on its surface?
11. How many kinds of wild strawberries do you know? How many kinds
of cultivated strawberries do you know?
12. Describe how you should prepare, plant and care for a strawberry
bed.
THE PUMPKIN
_Teacher’s Story_
If the pumpkin were as rare as some orchids, people would make long
pilgrimages to look upon so magnificent a plant. Although it trails
along the ground, letting Mother Earth help it support its gigantic
fruit, yet there is no sign of weakness in its appearance; the vine
stem is strong, ridged, spiny and purposeful. And the spines upon
it are surely a protection under some circumstances, for I remember
distinctly when, as children, bare-footed and owning the world, we
“played Indian” and found our ambush in the long rows of ripening
corn, we skipped over the pumpkin vines, knowing well the punishment
they inflicted on the unwary feet.
From the hollow, strongly angled stem arise in majesty the pumpkin
leaves, of variously lobed patterns, but all formed on the same
decorative plan. The pumpkin leaf is as worthy of the sculptor’s
chisel as is that of the classic _acanthus_; it is palmately veined,
having from three to five lobes, and its broad base is supported for
a distance on each side of the angled petiole by the two basal veins.
The leaves are deep green above, paler below and are covered on both
sides with minute bristles, and their edges are finely toothed. The
bristly, angled stem which lifts it aloft is a quite worthy support
for so beautiful a leaf. And, during our childhood, it was also
highly esteemed as a trombone, for it added great richness of quality
to our orchestral performances, balancing the shrillness of the
basswood whistle and the sharp buzzing of the dandelion-stem pipe.
[Illustration: “_When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in
the shock._”
Photo by Verne Morton.]
Growing from a point nearly opposite a leaf, may be seen the
pumpkin’s elaborate tendril. It has a stalk like that of the leaf,
but instead of the leaf blade it seems to have the three to five
naked ribs curled in long, small coils very even and exact. Perhaps,
at some period in the past, the pumpkin vines lifted themselves by
clinging to trees, as do the gourd vines of to-day. But the pumpkin
was cultivated in fields with the maize by the North American
Indians, long before the Pilgrim Fathers came to America, to make
its fruit into pies. Since the pumpkin cannot sustain itself in our
Northern climate without the help of man, it was evidently a native
of a warmer land; and, by growing for so long a time as a companion
of the corn, it has learned to send its long stems out for many feet,
resting entirely upon the ground. But, like a conservative, elderly
maiden lady, it still wears corkscrew curls in memory of a fashion,
long since obsolete. Occasionally, we see the pumpkin vines at the
edge of the field pushing out and clambering over stone piles, and
often attempting to climb the rail fences, as if there still remained
within them the old instinct to climb.
But though its foliage is beautiful, the glory of the pumpkin is
its vivid yellow blossom and, later, its orange fruit. When the
blossom first starts on its career as a bud, it is enfolded in a
bristly, ribbed calyx with five stiff, narrow lobes, which close up
protectingly about the green, cone-shaped bud, a rib of the cone
appearing between each two lobes of the calyx. If we watch one of
these buds day after day, we find that the green cone changes to
a yellow color and a softer texture as the bud unfolds, and then
we discover that it is the corolla itself; however, these ribs
which extend out to the tip of the corolla-lobes remain greenish
below, permanently. The expanding of the flower bud is a pretty
process; each lobe, supported by a strong midrib, spreads out into a
five-pointed star, each point being very sharp and angular because,
folded in along these edges in one of the prettiest of Nature’s hems,
is the ruffled margin of the flower. Not until the sun has shone upon
the star for some little time of a summer morning, do these turned-in
margins open out; and, late in the afternoon or during a storm, they
fold down again neatly before the lobes close up; if a bee is not
lively in escaping she may, willy-nilly, get a night’s lodging, for
these folded edges literally hem her in.
[Illustration: _The closing of a pumpkin flower._
1, Staminate flower beginning to close; note the folded edges of the
lobes. 2, Pistillate flower nearly closed. 3, Staminate flower closed
and in its last stage.]
The story of the treasure at the heart of this starry, bell-shaped
flower is a double one, and we had best begin it by selecting a
flower that has below it a little green globe--the ovary--which will
later develop into a pumpkin. At the heart of such a flower there
stand three stigmas, that look like liliputian boxing-gloves; each
is set on a stout, postlike style, which has its base in a great
nectar-cup, the edges of which are slightly incurved over its welling
sweetness. In order to reach this nectar, the lady bee must stand on
her head and brush her pollen-dusted side against the greedy stigmas.
Professor Duggar has noted that in dry weather the margins of this
nectar-cup contract noticeably, and that in wet weather the stigmas
close down as if the boxing-gloves were on closed fists.
[Illustration: _The staminate blossom of the pumpkin, showing the
anther knob at the center. A bud of the staminate flower; and a
closed blossom at the right._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
[Illustration:
_1, Base of pistillate blossom_; _o, ovary which develops into
the pumpkin_; _n, nectar-cup_; _st., stigmas_. _2, Base of a
staminate blossom_; _n, opening into the nectar-cup_; _an,
anthers joined, forming a knob_. _3, Pumpkin tendril._
]
The other half of the pumpkin-blossom story is to be found in the
flowers which have no green globes below them, for these produce
the pollen. Such a flower has at its center a graceful pedestal
with a broad base and a slender stem, which upholds a curiously
folded, elongate knob, that looks like some ancient or primitive
jewel wrought in gold. The corrugations on its surface are the
anther-cells, which are curiously joined and curved around a central
oblong support; by cutting one across, we can see plainly the central
core, bordered by cells filled with pollen. But where is the nectar
well in the smooth cup of this flower? Some have maintained that
the bees visit this flower for the sake of the pollen, but I am
convinced that this is not all of the story. In the base of the
pedestal which supports the anther knob there appear, after a time,
three inconspicuous openings; and if we watch a bee, we shall see
that she knows these openings are there and eagerly thrusts her
tongue down through them. If we remove the anthers and the pedestal,
we shall find below the latter, a treasure cave; it is carpeted
with the softest of buff velvet, and while it does not reek with
nectar, as does the cup which encompasses the styles of the pistil,
yet it secretes enough of the sweet fluid so that we can taste it
distinctly. Thus, although the bees find pollen in this flower they
also find there, nectar. The pumpkin is absolutely dependent upon
the work of bees and other insects for carrying its pollen from the
blossom that bears it to the one which needs it, as this is the only
way that the fruit may be developed.
And after the pollen has been shed and delivered, the flower closes,
this time with an air of finality. The fading corolla looks as if
its lobes had been twisted about by the thumb and finger to secure
tightness; and woe betide the bee caught in one of these prisons,
unless she knows how to cut through its walls or can find within,
sustenance to last until the withered flower falls. The young pumpkin
is at first held up by its stiff stem but later rests upon the ground.
The ripe pumpkin is not only a colossal but also a beautiful fruit.
The glossy rind is brilliant orange and makes a very efficient
protection for the treasures within it. The stem is strong,
five-angled and stubborn, and will not let go its hold until the
fruit is over-ripe. It then leaves a star-shaped scar to match
the one at the pther end of the fruit, where once the blossom sat
enthroned. The pumpkin in shape is like a little world flattened at
the poles, and with the lines of longitude creased into its surface.
But the number of these longitudinal creases varies with individual
pumpkins, and seems to have no relation to the angles of the stem or
the three chambers within.
[Illustration:
_Section of a pumpkin just after the blossom has fallen. Note
how the seeds are borne._
]
If we cut a small green pumpkin across, we find the entire inside
solid. There are three fibrous partitions extending from the center,
dividing the pulp into thirds; at its outer end each partition
divides, and the two ends curve in opposite directions. Within these
curves the seeds are borne. A similar arrangement is seen in the
sliced cucumber. As the pumpkin ripens, the partitions surrounding
the seeds become stringy and very different from the “meat” next to
the rind, which makes a thick, solid outer wall about the central
chamber, where, within its “groined arches” are contained six rows
of crowded seeds, attached by their pointed tips and supported by a
network of yellow, coarse fibers--like babies supported in hammocks.
All this network, making a loose and fibrous core, allows the seeds
to fall out in a mass when the pumpkin is broken. If we observe
where the cattle have been eating pumpkins we find these masses of
seeds left and trampled into the mud, where, if our winter climate
permitted, they could grow into plants next year.
[Illustration:
_The squash plant breaking out of the seed-coats._
]
[Illustration: _The operation further progressed._]
The pumpkin seed is attached by its pointed end; it is flat, oblong
and has a rounded ridge at its edge, within which is a delicate
“beading.” The outside is very mucilaginous; but when wiped dry,
we can see that it has an outer, very thin, transparent coat; a
thicker white, middle coat; while the meat of the seed is covered
with a greenish, membranous coat. The meat falls apart lengthwise and
flatwise, the two halves forming later the seed-leaves and containing
the food laid up by the “pumpkin mother” for the nourishment of the
young plant. Between these two halves, at the pointed end, is the
germ, which will develop into a new plant.
When sprouting, the root pushes out through the pointed end of the
seed and grows downward. The shell of the seed is forced open by a
little wedge-shaped projection, while the seed-leaves are pulled
from their snug quarters. In watching one of these seeds sprout, it
is difficult not to attribute to it conscious effort, while it is
sturdily pulling hard to release its seed-leaves. If it fails to do
this, the seed shell clamps the seed-leaves together like a vise, and
the little plant is crippled.
Both squashes and pumpkins figure in the spicy Thanksgiving pies, but
the chief value of the pumpkin crop in America is as food for milch
cows; it causes a yield of milk so rich, that the butter made from it
is as golden as its flesh. But the Hallow-e’en jack o’lantern appeals
to the children. In this connection, a study of expression might be
made interesting; the turning of the corners of the mouth up or down,
and the angles of the eyebrows, making all the difference between a
jolly grin and an “awful face.”
LESSON CLXXII
THE PUMPKIN
_Leading thought_--The pumpkin and squash were cultivated by the
American Indians in their cornfields long before Columbus discovered
the new world. The flowers of these plants depend entirely upon
insects for carrying their pollen, and are unable to develop their
fruit without this aid.
_Method_--This work may be done in the garden or field in September
or early October; or a vine bearing both kinds of flowers, leaves and
tendrils may be brought to the schoolroom for observation. The lesson
on the pumpkin fruit may be given later. A small green pumpkin should
be studied with the ripe one, and also with the blossoms, so as to
show the position of the seeds during development. This lesson can be
modified to fit the cucumber, the melon and the squash.
_The Pumpkin Vine and Flowers_
_Observations_--1. How many different forms of flowers do you find on
a pumpkin vine? What are the chief differences in their shape?
2. Look first at the flowers with the long slender stems: What is the
shape and color of the blossom? How many lobes has it? Is each lobe
distinctly ribbed or veined? Is the flower smooth on the inner and
the outer surface? Are the edges of the lobes scalloped or ruffled?
[Illustration: _Partially closed pistillate blossom at the right,
showing the stigmas and the nectar-cup at the center. Note the young
pumpkin and the beautiful leaf; note also the angular, spiny stems._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
3. What do you see at the bottom of the golden vase of this flower?
This yellow club, or knob, is formed by the joining of three anthers,
one of which is smaller than the others. Do all the pumpkin flowers
have this knob at the center? Look at the base of the standard which
bears the anther-knob, and note if there are some openings; how many?
Cut off the anther pedestal, and describe what is hidden beneath it.
Note if the bees find the openings to the nectar-well and probe there
for the nectar. Do they become dusted with pollen while seeking the
nectar?
4. What color is the pollen which is clinging to the anther? Is it
soft and light, or moist and sticky? Do you think that the wind would
be able to lift it from its deep cup and carry it to the cup of
another flower?
5. Describe the calyx behind this pollen-bearing flower. How many
lobes has it? Are the lobes slender and pointed?
6. Find one of the flowers which has below it a little green globe,
which will later develop into a pumpkin. How does this flower differ
from the one that bears the pollen?
7. Describe or sketch the pistil which is at the bottom of this
flower vase. Into how many lobes does it divide? Do these three
stigmas face outward, or toward each other? Are the styles which
uphold the stigmas short or long? Describe the cup in which they
stand. Break away a bit of this little yellow cup and taste it. Why
do you think the pumpkin flowers need such a large and well-filled
nectary? Could insects get the nectar from the cup without rubbing
against the stigmas, the pollen with which they became so thoroughly
dusted when they visited the staminate flowers?
8. Cut through the center of one of the small green pumpkins. Can
you see into how many sections it is divided? Does the number of
seed-clusters correspond with the number of stigmas in the flower?
Make a sketch of a cross-section, showing where the seeds are placed.
9. What insects do you find visiting the pumpkin flowers?
10. Carefully unfold a flower bud which is nearly ready to open, and
note how it is folded. Then notice late in the afternoon how the
flower closes. What part is folded over first? What next? How does it
look when closed?
11. Describe the stems of the pumpkin vine; how are they strengthened
and protected? Sketch or describe a pumpkin leaf.
12. Describe one of the tendrils of the pumpkin vine. Do you think
that these tendrils could help the vine in climbing? Have you ever
found a pumpkin vine climbing up any object?
_The Pumpkin Fruit_
_Observations_--1. Do you think the pumpkin is a beautiful fruit?
Why? Describe its shape and the way it is creased. Describe the
rind, its color and its texture, and tell how it protects the fruit.
Describe the stem; does it cling to the pumpkin? How many ridges
in the stem where it joins the vine? How many where it joins the
pumpkin? Which part of the stem is larger? Does this give it a firmer
hold?
[Illustration: _A closed pistillate flower of the pumpkin._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
2. Cut in halves crosswise a small green pumpkin and a ripe one.
Which is the most solid? Can you see how the seeds are borne in the
green pumpkin? How do they look in the ripe pumpkin? What is next to
the rind in the ripe fruit? What part of the pumpkin do we use for
pies?
3. Can you see in the ripe pumpkin where the seeds are borne? How are
they suspended? How many rows of seeds lengthwise of the pumpkin? Of
what use could it be to the pumpkin to have the seeds thus suspended
within it by these threads or fibers? What is left of a pumpkin after
the cattle have eaten it? Might the seeds thus left plant themselves?
4. Is the pumpkin seed attached at the round, or the pointed, end?
Describe the pumpkin seed its shape and its edges? How does it feel
when first taken from the pumpkin? How many coats has the seed?
5. Describe the meat of the seed? Does it divide naturally into two
parts? Can you see the little germ? Have you ever tried roasting and
salting pumpkin and squash seeds, to prepare them for food as almonds
and peanuts are prepared?
6. Plant a pumpkin seed in damp sand and give it warmth and light.
From which end does it sprout? What comes first, the root or the
leaves? What part of the seed forms the seed-leaves?
7. Describe how the pumpkin sprout pries open the shell to its seed,
in order to get its seed-leaves out. What happens if it does not pull
them out? Which part of the seedling pumpkin appears above ground
first?
8. How do the true leaves differ in shape from the seed-leaves. What
is the use of the seed-leaves to the plant?
* * * * *
_Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New-Englander sees round his board
The old broken lines of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?_
_Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin--our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!_
--J. G. WHITTIER.
FLOWERLESS-PLANT STUDY
FERNS
[Illustration: M]
Many interesting things about ferns may be taught to the young child,
but the more careful study of these plants is better adapted to the
pupils in the higher grades, and is one of the wide-open doors that
leads directly from nature-study to systematic science. While the
pupils are studying the different forms in which ferns bear their
fruit, they can make collections of all the ferns of the locality.
Since ferns are easily pressed and are beautiful objects when mounted
on white paper, the making of a fern herbarium is a delightful
pastime; or leaf-prints may be made which give beautiful results (see
page 734); but, better perhaps, than either collections or prints,
are pencil or water-color drawings with details of the fruiting
organs enlarged. Such a portfolio is not only a thing of beauty but
the close observation needed for drawing brings much knowledge to the
artist.
_References._--Our Ferns in Their Haunts, W. N. Clute, (of greatest
value to teachers because it gives much of fern literature); How to
Know the Ferns, Parsons; Ferns, Waters; New England Ferns, Eastman.
THE CHRISTMAS FERN
_Teacher’s Story_
“_No shivering frond that shuns the blast sways on its slender
chaffy stem;
Full veined and lusty green it stands, of all the wintry
woods the gem._”
--W. N. CLUTE.
The rootstock of the fern is an humble example of “rising on stepping
stones of our dead selves,” this being almost literally true of the
tree-ferns. The rootstock which is a stem and not a root--has, like
other stems, a growing tip from which, each year, it sends up into
the world several beautiful green fronds, and numerous rootlets down
into the earth. These graceful fronds rejoice the world and our eyes
for the summer, and make glad the one who, in winter, loves to wander
often in the woods to inquire after the welfare of his many friends
during their period of sleeping and waking. These fronds, after
giving their message of winter cheer, and after the following summer
has made the whole woodland green and the young fronds are growing
thriftily from the tip of the rootstock, die down, and in midsummer
we can find the old fronds lying sere and brown, with broken stipes,
just back of the new fern clump; if we examine the rootstock we can
detect behind them, remains of the stems of the fronds of year before
last; and still farther behind we may trace all the stems of fronds
which gladdened the world three years ago. Thus we learn that this
rootstock may have been creeping on an inch or so each season for
many years, always busy with the present and giving no heed to its
dead past. One of the chief differences between our ferns and the
tree-ferns of the tropics, which we often see in greenhouses, is that
in the tree-fern the rootstock rises in the air instead of creeping
on, or below, the surface of the ground. This upright rootstock
of the tree-fern also bears fronds at its tip, and its old fronds
gradually die down, leaving it rough below its crown of green plumes.
[Illustration: _The Christmas fern. The contracted tips of some of
the fronds consist of fruiting pinnæ._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
The Christmas fern has its green stipe, or petiole, and its rachis,
or midrib, more or less covered with ragged, brownish scales,
which give it an unkempt appearance. Its pinnæ, or leaflets, are
individually very pretty; in color they are dark, shining green,
lance-shaped, with a pointed lobe or ear at the base projecting
upward. The edges of the pinnæ are delicately toothed, each point
armed with a little spine, and the veins are fine, straight and free
to the margin; the lower pinnæ often have the earlike lobe completely
severed.
[Illustration:
_1. Fertile leaflet of Christmas fern showing indusia and
spore-cases._ _2. An indusium and spore-cases, enlarged._ _3.
A spore-case, enlarged._ _4. A spore-case discharging spores,
enlarged._
]
In studying a fertile fern from above, we notice that about a dozen
pairs of the pinnæ near the tip are narrowed and roughened and are
more distinctly toothed on the margins. Examining them underneath,
we find on each a double row of circular raised dots which are the
fruit-dots, or sori; there is a row between the midrib and margin
on each side, and also a double row extending up into the point at
the base. Early in the season these spots look like pale blisters,
later they turn pale brown, each blister having a depression at its
center; by the middle of June, masses of tiny globules, not larger
than pin points, push out from beneath the margin of these dots. The
blisterlike membrane is simply a cover for the growing spores, and is
called the _indusium_; by July it shrivels into an irregular scroll,
still clinging to the pinnule by its depressed center; and by this
time the profusion of tiny globules covers the entire under side of
the pinna like a brown fuzz. If we scrape off some of this fuzz and
examine it with a lens, we can see that it consists of numberless
little globules, each with a stem to attach it to the leaf; these
are the spore-cases, or sporangia, each globule being packed full of
spores which, even through the lens, look like yellowish powder. But
each particle of this dust has its own structure and contains in its
heart the living fern-substance.
[Illustration: _The common polypody often mistaken for the Christmas
fern._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
Not all the fronds of the fern clump bear these fruit-dots. The ones
we select for decoration are usually the sterile fronds, for the
fertile ones are not so graceful, and many ignorant people think the
brown spore-cases are a fungus. The Christmas fern being evergreen
and very firm in texture, is much used in holiday decoration, hence
its common name, which is more easily remembered than _Polystichum
acrostichoides_, which is its real name. It loves to grow in
well-shaded woodlands, liking better the trees which shed their
leaves than the evergreens; it is indeed well-adapted to thrive in
damp, cold shade; it is rarely found on slopes which face the south,
and sunshine kills it.
LESSON CLXXIII
THE CHRISTMAS FERN
_Leading thought_--The fern has a creeping underground stem called
the rootstock, which pushes forward and sends up fresh fronds each
year. Some of the fronds of the Christmas fern bear spores on the
lower surface of the terminal pinnæ.
_Method_--This lesson should be given during the latter part of May,
when the fruit-dots are still green. Take up a fern and transplant
it, in a dish of moss, in the schoolroom, and later plant it in some
convenient shady place. The pupils should sketch the fertile frond
from the upper side so as to fix in their minds the contracted pinnæ
of the tip; one of the lower pinnæ should be drawn in detail, showing
the serrate edge, the ear and the venation. The teacher should use
the following terms constantly and insistently, so as to make the
fern nomenclature a part of the school vocabulary, and thus fit the
pupils for using fern manuals.
[Illustration: _Leaf-print of a fern with the parts named. This fern
is twice pinnate._]
A _frond_ is all of the fern which grows on one stem from the
rootstock; the _blade_ is that portion which bears leaflets; the
_stipe_ is the stem or petiole; the _rachis_ is the midrib and is
a continuation of the stipe; the _pinnule_ is a leaflet of the
last division; the _pinna_ is a chief division of the midrib or
rachis, when the fern is compound; the _sori_ are the fruit-dots;
the _indusium_ is the membrane covering the fruiting organs; the
_sporangia_ are the tiny brown globules, and are the spore-cases;
the _spores_ make up the fine dust which comes from the spore-cases.
It would be well to make a diagram on the blackboard of the fern with
its parts named, so that the pupils may consult it while studying
ferns.
_Observations_--1. Study a stump of the Christmas ferns. Are there
any withered fronds? Where do they join the rootstock? Do the green
fronds come from the same place on the rootstock as the withered
ones? Do the green ferns come from near the tip of the rootstock? Can
you find the growing tip of the rootstock? Can you trace back and
find where the fronds of last year and year before last grew? Does
that part of the rootstock seem alive now? Can you find the true root
of the fern?
2. Take a frond of the Christmas fern. Is the stem, or stipe, and the
midrib, or rachis, smooth or rough? What color are the scales of the
stalk? Do you think that these scales once wrapped the fern bud?
3. Does each frond of a clump have the same number of pinnæ on each
side? Can you find fronds where the pinnæ near the tip are narrower
than those below? Take a lower pinna and draw it carefully, showing
its shape, its edges and its veins. Is there a point, or ear, at the
base of every pinna? Is it a separate lobe or a mere point of the
pinna?
4. Take one of the narrow pinnæ near the tip of the frond, and
examine it beneath. Can you see some circular, roundish blisterlike
dots? Are they dented at the center? How many of these dots on a
pinna? Make a little sketch showing how they are arranged on the
pinna and on the little earlike point. Look at the fruiting pinnæ of
a fern during July, and describe how they look then.
5. Do all the fronds of a fern clump have these narrowed
spore-bearing pinnæ? Do you know what those fronds are called that
bear the fruit-dots?
6. Where do you find the Christmas fern growing? Do you ever find it
in a sunny place? Why is it called the Christmas fern?
* * * * *
_FERN SONG_
_Dance to the beat of the rain, little Fern
And spread out your palms again,
And say, “Tho’ the sun
Hath my vesture spun,
He had labored, alas, in vain,
But for the shade
That the Cloud hath made,
And the gift of the Dew and the Rain.”
Then laugh and upturn
All your fronds, little Fern,
And rejoice in the beat of the rain!_
--JOHN B. TABB.
THE BRACKEN
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: _Bracken._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
It is well for the children to study the animals and plants which
have a world-wide distribution. There is something comforting in
finding a familiar plant in strange countries; and when I have found
the bracken on the coast ranges of California, on the rugged sides of
the Alps, and in many other far places, I have always experienced a
thrill of delightful memories of the fence corners of the homestead
farm. Since the bracken is so widespread, it is natural that it
should find a place in literature and popular legend. As it clothes
the mountains of Scotland, it is much sung of in Scottish poetry.
Many superstitions cluster around it--its seed, if caught at midnight
on a white napkin, is supposed to render the possessor invisible.
Professor Clute, in Our Ferns in Their Haunts, gives a delightful
chapter about the relation of the bracken to people.
For nature-study purposes, the bracken is valuable as a lesson on
the intricate patterns of the fern leaf; it is in fact a lesson in
pinnateness. The two lower branches are large and spreading and are
in themselves often three times pinnate; the branches higher up are
twice pinnate; while the main branch near the tip is once pinnate,
and at the tip is merely lobed. The lesson, as illustrated in the
diagram of the fern, should be well learned for future study, because
this nomenclature is used in all the fern manuals. The fact that a
pinnule is merely the last division of a frond, whether it be twice
or thrice pinnate, should also be understood.
The bracken does not love complete shade and establishes itself in
waste places, living contentedly in not too shaded locations; it is
especially fond of woodsides, and fence corners on high and cold
land. As Professor Clute says, “It is found both in woodland and in
the open field; its favorite haunt is neither, but is that half-way
ground where man leaves oft and nature begins, the copse or the
thicket.” With us it usually grows about three feet high, but varies
much in this respect. The great triangular fronds often measure two
or three feet across, and are supposed to bear a likeness to an eagle
with spread wings. Its rootstock is usually too deeply embedded in
earth for the study of any except the most energetic; it is about
the size of a lead pencil and is black and smooth; in its way it is
a great traveler, sending up fronds fifteen or twenty feet from its
starting place. It also sends off branching rootstocks.
[Illustration:
_1. Fruiting pinnules of the maiden-hair fern, enlarged._
_2. Fruiting pinnule of the bracken, enlarged. In both these
species the spores are borne under the recurved edges of the
pinnules._
]
The fruiting pinnules look as if they were hemmed and the edges of
the hems embroidered with brown wool; but the embroidery is simply
the spore-cases pushing out from under the folded margin which
protected them while developing.
Much on which to base necromancy has been found in the figure shown
in the cross-section of the stem or stipe. The letter C, supposed
to stand for Christ, thus made is a potent protection from witches.
But this figure has also been compared to the devil’s hoof, an oak
tree, or the initial of one’s sweetheart, and all these imaginings
have played their part in the lives of the people of past ages. It
was believed in England that burning the bracken from the fields
brought rain; the roots in time of scarcity have been ground and
mixed with flour to make bread. The young ferns, or croziers, are
sometimes cooked and eaten like asparagus. The fronds have been used
extensively for tanning leather and for packing fish and fruit, and
when burned their ashes are used instead of soap.
In Europe, bracken grows so rankly that it is used for roof-thatching
and for the bedding of cattle. The name “brake,” which is loosely
used for all ferns, comes from the word “bracken;” some people think
that brakes are different from ferns, whereas this is simply a name
which has strayed from the bracken to other species. Its scientific
name, _Pteris aquilina_, signifies eagle’s wing.
LESSON CLXXIV
THE BRACKEN
_Leading thought_--The bracken is a fern which has taken possession
of the world. It is much branched and divided, and it covers the
ground in masses where it grows. The edges of its pinnules are folded
under to protect the spores.
_Method_--Bring to the schoolroom large and small specimens of the
bracken, and after a study is made tell about the superstitions
connected with this fern and as far as possible interest the pupils
in its literature.
_Observations_--1. Do you find the bracken growing in the woods or
open places? Do you find it in the cultivated fields? How high does
it stand? Could you find the rootstock?
2. Take a bracken frond. What is its general shape? Does it remind
you of an eagle with spread wings? Look at its very tip. Is it
pinnate or merely lobed? Can you find a place farther down where the
leaflets, or pinnules, are not joined at their bases? This is once
pinnate. Look farther down and find a pinna that is lobed at the tip;
at the base it has distinct pinnules. This is twice pinnate. Look at
the lowest divisions of all. Can you find any part of this which is
three times pinnate? Four times pinnate? Pinna means feather, pinnate
therefore means feathered. If a thing is once pinnate, it means that
it has divisions along each side similar to a feather; twice pinnate
means that each feather has little feathers along each side; thrice
pinnate means that the little feathers have similar feathers along
each side, and so on.
3. Can you see if the edges of the pinnules are folded under? Lift up
one of these edges and see if you can find what is growing beneath
it. How do these folded margins look during August and September?
4. Cut the stem, or stipe, of a bracken across and see the figure in
it. Does it look like the initial C? Or a hoof, or an oak tree, or
another initial?
5. Discover, if you can, the different uses which people of other
countries find for this fern.
HOW A FERN BUD UNFOLDS
_Teacher’s Story_
Of all “plant babies,” that of the fern is most cozily cuddled;
one feels when looking at it, that not only are its eyes shut but
its fists are tightly closed. But the first glance at one of these
little woolly spirals gives us but small conception of its marvelous
enfolding, all so systematic and perfect that it seems another
evidence of the divine origin of mathematics. Every part of the frond
is present in that bud, even to the fruiting organs; all the pinnæ
and the pinnules are packed in the smallest compass--each division,
even to the smallest pinnule, coiled in a spiral towards its base.
These coiled fern buds are called crosiers; they are woolly, with
scales instead of hairs, and are thus well blanketed. Some botanists
object to the comparison of the woolly or fuzzy clothing of young
plants with the blankets of human infants. It is true that the young
plant is not kept at a higher temperature by this covering; but
because of it, transpiration which is a cooling process is prevented,
and thus the plant is kept warmer. When the fern commences to grow,
it stretches up and seems to lean over backward in its effort to be
bigger. First the main stem, or rachis, loosens its coil; but before
this is completed, the pinnæ, which are coiled at right angles to
the main stem, begin to unfold; a little later the pinnules, which
are folded at right angles to the pinnæ, loosen and seem to stretch
and yawn before taking a look at the world which they have just
entered; it may be several days before all signs of the complex
coiling disappear. The crosiers of the bracken are queer looking
creatures, soon developing three claws which some people say look
like the talons of an eagle; and so intricate is the action of their
multitudinous spirals, that to watch them unfolding impresses one as
in the presence of a miracle.
[Illustration: _Fiddle heads, or crosiers. Young ferns unfolding._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
LESSON CLXXV
HOW A FERN BUD UNFOLDS
_Leading thought_--All of the parts of the frond of a fern are
tightly folded spirally within the bud, and every lobe of every
leaflet is also folded in a spiral.
_Method_--The bracken crosier is a most illuminating object for this
lesson, because it has so many divisions and is so large; it is also
convenient, because it may be found in September. However, any fern
bud will do. The lesson may be best given in May when the woodland
ferns are starting. A fern root with its buds should be brought to
the schoolroom, where the process of unfolding may be watched at
leisure.
_Observations_--1. Take a very young bud. How does it look? Do you
see any reason why ignorant people call these buds caterpillars? Can
you see why they are popularly called “fiddle heads?” What is their
true name? How many turns of the coil can you count? What is the
covering of the crosier? Do you think this cover is a protection? How
is the stem grooved to make the spiral compact?
2. Take a crosier a little further advanced. How are its pinnæ
folded? How is each pinnule of each pinna folded? How is each lobe of
a pinnule folded? Is each smaller part coiled toward each larger part?
3. Write in your note-book the story of the unfolding fern, and
sketch its stages each day from the time it is cuddled down in a
spiral until it is a fully expanded frond.
THE FRUITING OF THE FERN
_Teacher’s Story_
“_If we were required to know the position of the fruit-dots
or the character of the indusium, nothing could be easier than
to ascertain it; but if it is required that you be affected
by ferns, that they amount to anything, signify anything to
you, that they be another sacred scripture and revelation
to you, help to redeem your life, this end is not so easily
accomplished._”--THOREAU.
[Illustration: T
_The walking fern._]
The fern, like the butterfly, seems to have several this-world
incarnations; and perhaps the most wonderful of these is the spore.
Shake the dust out of the ripened fern and each particle, although
too small for the naked eye to see, has within it the possibilities
of developing a mass of graceful ferns. Each spore has an outside
hard layer, and within this an atom of fern-substance; but it cannot
be developed unless it falls into some warm, damp place favorable for
its growth; it may have to wait many years before chance gives it
this favorable condition, but it is strong and patient and retains
its vital power for years. There are cases known where spores grew
after twenty years of waiting. But what does this microscopic atom
grow into? It develops into a tiny heart-shaped, leaflike structure
which botanists call the prothallium; this has on its lower side
little roots which reach down into the soil for nourishment; and
on its upper surface are two kinds of pockets, one round and the
other long. In the round pockets are developed bodies which may be
compared to the pollen; and in the long pockets, bodies which may be
compared to the ovules of flowering plants. In the case of ferns,
water is necessary to float the pollen from the round pockets to
the ovules in the long pockets. From a germ thus fertilized in one
of the long pockets, a little green fern starts to grow, although
it may be several years before it becomes a plant strong enough to
send up fronds with spore-dots on them. To study the structure of
the spore requires the highest powers of the microscope; and even
the prothallium in most species is very small, varying from the size
of a pin-head to that of a small pea, and it is therefore quite
difficult to find. I found some once on a mossy log that bridged
a stream, and I was never so triumphant over any other outdoor
achievement. They may be found in damp places, in greenhouses, but
the teacher will be very fortunate who is able to show her pupils
this stage of the fern. The prothallium is a stage of the fern to
be compared to the flower and seed combined in the higher plants;
but this is difficult for young minds to comprehend. I like to tell
the children that the fern, like a butterfly, has several stages:
Beginning with the spore-bearing fern, we next have the spores, next
the prothallium stage, and then the young fern. While in the other
case we have first the egg, then the caterpillar, then the chrysalis,
and then the butterfly. Looking at the ripe fruit-dots on the lower
side of the fern leaf, we can easily see with a lens a mass of tiny
globules; each one of these is a spore-case, or sporangium, (plural
_sporangia_), and is fastened to the leaf by a stalk and has, almost
encircling it, a jointed ring. (See figure on page 686).
[Illustration:
_Prothallium, greatly enlarged, showing the two kinds of
pockets and the rootlets._
]
[Illustration: _Christmas fern is below the others._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
[Illustration: _The life of a fern._
1. _a_, pinna bearing fruit: _b_, a fruit-dot, enlarged,
showing spore-cases pushing out around the edges of the
indusium, _c_, spore-case, enlarged, showing how it discharges
the spores.
2. Prothallium, enlarged.
3. Young fern growing from the prothallium.
]
When the spores are ripe, this ring straightens out and ruptures the
globule, and out fly the spores. By scraping a little of the brown
fuzz from a fruiting pinna of the Christmas fern upon a glass slide
and placing a cover glass upon it, we find it very easy to examine
through the microscope, and we are able thus to find the spore-cases
in all stages, and to see the spores distinctly. The spore-cases may
also be seen with a hand lens, the spores seeming then to be mere
dust.
The different ways the ferns blanket their spore-cases is a
delightful study, and one which the pupils enjoy very much. All of
our common ferns except the careless little polypody thus protect
their spores. Whether this blanket be circular, or horseshoe-shaped,
or oblong, or in the form of pocket or cup, depends upon the genus
to which the fern belongs. The little protecting blanket-membrane is
called the _indusium_, and while its shape distinguishes the genus,
the position in which it grows determines the species. I shall never
forget my surprise and delight when, as a young girl, I visited
the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, and there in the great
conservatories saw for the first time the tree-ferns of the tropics.
One of these was labelled _Dicksonia_, and mystified, I asked the
privilege of examining the fronds for fruiting organs. When lo! the
indusium proved to be a little cup, borne at the base of the tooth of
the pinnule, exactly like that of our boulder fern, which is also a
Dicksonia. I had a sudden feeling that I must have fern friends all
over the world.
[Illustration:
_1. Fruiting pinnule of the boulder fern, enlarged._ _2.
Fruiting pinnules of spleenwort, enlarged._
]
[Illustration: _Fruiting pinnules of evergreen wood fern._]
[Illustration: _Fruiting pinnules of the chain fern._]
The children are always interested in the way the maidenhair folds
over the tips of her scallops to protect her spore nursery; and while
many of our ferns have their fertile fronds very similar in form
to the sterile ones, yet there are many common ferns with fertile
fronds that look so different from the others, that one would not
think they were originally of the same pattern; but although their
pinnules are changed into cups, or spore-pockets, of various shapes,
if they be examined carefully they will be seen to have the same
general structure and the same divisions however much contracted,
as have the large sterile fronds. The Osmundas, which include the
interrupted, the cinnamon and the flowering ferns, are especially
good for this part of the lesson. The sensitive fern, so common in
damp places in open fields, is also an excellent illustration of this
method of fruiting. While studying the ferns, the teacher should lay
stress upon the fact that they represent the earliest and simplest
forms of plants, that they reached the zenith of their growth in the
Carboniferous age, and that, to a large extent, our coal is composed
of them. It is interesting to think that the exquisite and intricate
leaf patterns of the ferns should belong to a primitive type. Often
when I have watched the forming by the frost, of the exquisite
fernlike pictures on the window-pane, I have wondered if, after all,
the first expression of the Creator did not find form in the most
exquisite grace and beauty; and if perchance the first fishes, so
fierce and terrible, did not mark the introduction of Satan.
[Illustration: _A sensitive fern, showing sterile and fertile
fronds._]
LESSON CLXXVI
THE FRUITING OF THE FERN
_Leading thought_--Ferns do not have flowers, but they produce
spores. Spores are not seeds; but they grow into something which may
be compared to a true seed, and this in turn develops into young
ferns. Each genus of ferns has its own peculiar way of protecting its
spores; and if we learn these different ways, we can recognize ferns
without effort.
_Method_--July is the best time for this lesson, which is well
adapted for summer schools or camping trips. However, if it is
desired to use it as a school lesson, it should be begun in June,
when the fruiting organs are green, and it may be finished in
September after the spores are discharged. Begin with the Christmas
fern, which ripens in June, and make the fruiting of this species a
basis for comparison. Follow this with other wood ferns which bear
fruit-dots on the back of the fronds. Then study the ferns which
live in more open places, and which have fronds changed in form to
bear the spores--like the sensitive, the ostrich, the royal and the
flowering ferns. A study of the interrupted fern is a desirable
preparation for the further study of those which have special
fruiting fronds; the interrupted fern has, at about the middle of
its frond, three pinnæ on each side, fitted for spore-bearing, the
pinnules being changed into globular cups filled with spore-cases.
While not absolutely necessary, it is highly desirable that each
member of the class should look at a fruit-dot of some fern through a
three-quarters objective of a compound microscope, and then examine
the spore-cases and the spores through a one-sixth objective. It
must be remembered that this lesson is for advanced grades, and is a
preparation for systematic scientific work. If a microscope is not
available, the work may be done with a hand lens aided by pictures.
[Illustration:
_Diagram of the interrupted fern, showing the three pairs of
fruiting pinnæ, and a part of one of these enlarged. This fern
often has fronds four or five feet high._
]
_Observations_--1. Take a fern that is in fruit; lay it on a sheet of
white paper and leave it thus for a day or two, where it will not be
disturbed and where there is no draught; then take it up carefully;
the form of the fern will be outlined in dust. What is this dust?
2. What conditions must the spores have in order to grow? What do
they grow into? (See First Studies of Plant Life by Atkinson, p. 207).
3. Look at a ripe fruit-dot on the back of a fern leaf and see where
the spores come from. Can you see with a lens many little, brown
globules? Can you see that some of them are torn open? These are
the spore-cases, called _sporangia_, each globule being packed with
spores. Can you see how the sporangia are fastened to the leaf by
little stems?
4. Almost all our common wood ferns have the spore-cases protected
by a thin membrane, the spore-blanket, when very young; this little
membrane is called the _indusium_, and it is of different shape in
those ferns which do not have the same sirname, or generic name.
Study as many kinds of wood ferns as you can find. If the blanket, or
indusium, is circular with a dent at the center where it is fastened
to the leaf, and the spore-cases push out around the margin, it is a
_Christmas fern_; if horseshoe-shaped, it is one of the _wood ferns_;
if oblong, in rows on each side of the midrib, it is a _chain fern_;
but if oblong and at an angle to the midrib, it is a _spleenwort_;
if it is pocket-shaped and opening at one side, it is a _bladder
fern_; if it is cup-shaped, it is a _boulder fern_; if it breaks
open and lays back in star shape, it is a _woodsia_; if the edge of
the fern leaf is folded over all along its margin to protect the
spore-cases, it is a _bracken_; if the tips of the scallops of the
leaf be delicately folded over to make a spore blanket, it is the
_maidenhair_.
5. If you know of swampy land where there are many tall brakes, look
for a kind that has some of its pinnæ withered and brown. Examine
these withered pinnæ, and you will see that they are not withered at
all but are changed into little cups to hold spore-cases. This is the
_interrupted fern_. The _flowering fern_ has the pinnæ at its tip
changed into cups for spore-cases. The _cinnamon fern_, which grows
in swampy places, has whole fronds which are cinnamon-colored and
look withered, but which bear the spores. The ostrich fern, which
has fronds which look like magnificent ostrich feathers, has stiff,
little stalks of fruiting fronds very unlike the magnificent sterile
fronds. The _sensitive fern_, which grows in damp meadows and along
roadsides, also has contracted fruiting fronds. If you find any of
these, compare carefully the fruiting with the sterile fronds, and
note in each case the resemblance in branching and in pinnules and
also the shape of the openings through which the spores are sifted
out.
6. Gather and press specimens of as many ferns in the fruiting stage
as you can find, taking both sterile and fruiting fronds in those
species which have this specialization.
7. Read in the geologies about the ferns which helped to make our
coal beds.
_Supplementary reading._--The Story of a Fern; First Studies of Plant
Life, Atkinson; The Petrified Fern, M. L. B. Branch.
[Illustration: _The bulb-bearing bladder fern. This beautiful fern
clothes the banks of damp ravines. It has, in addition to fruiting
organs, buds on the stem, which take root._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
* * * * *
“_Nature made ferns for pure leaves to see what she could do
in that line._”--THOREAU
THE FIELD HORSETAIL
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration:
_1, Fertile plant of the field horsetail_; _2, spore_; _3,
disk discharging spores_; _4, disk with spore-sacs_.
]
These queer, pale plants grow in sandy or gravelly soil, and since
they appear so early in the spring they are objects of curiosity to
children. The stalk is pale and uncanny looking; the pinkish stem,
all the same size from bottom to top, is ornamented at intervals with
upward-pointing, slender, black, sharp-pointed scales, which unite
at the bottom and encircle the stalk in a slightly bulging ring, a
ring which shows a ridge for every scale, extending down the stem.
These black scales are really leaves springing from a joint in the
stem, but they forgot long ago how to do a leaf’s work of getting
food from the air. The “blossom” which is not a real blossom in the
eye of the botanist, is made up of rows of tiny discs which are set
like miniature toadstools around the central stalk. Before it is
ripe, there extends back from the edge of each disc a row of little
sacs stuffed so full of green spores that they look united like a
row of tiny green ridges. The discs at the top of the fertile spike
discharge their spores first, as can be seen by shaking the plant
over white paper, the falling spores looking like pale green powder.
The burst and empty sacs are whitish, and hang around the discs in
torn scallops, after the spores are shed. The spores, when seen under
the microscope, are wonderful objects, each a little green ball with
four spiral bands wound about it. These spirals uncoil and throw the
spore, giving it a movement as of something alive. The motor power in
these living springs is the absorbing of moisture.
The beginning of the sterile shoot can be seen like a green bit of
the blossom spike of the plantain; but later, after the fertile
stalks have died down, these cover the ground with their strange
fringes.
The person who first called these sterile plants “horsetails” had an
overworked imagination, or none at all; for the only quality the two
have in common is brushiness. A horse which had the hair of its tail
set in whorls with the same precision as this plant has its branches
would be one of the world’s wonders. The _Equicetum_ is one of the
plants which give evidence of nature’s resourcefulness; its remote
ancestors probably had a whorl of leaves at each joint or node of
the main stem and branches; but the plant now having so many green
branches, does not really need the leaves, and thus they have been
reduced to mere points, and look like nothing but “trimming,” they
are so purely ornamental. Each little cup or socket, of the joint
or node, in branch or stem, has a row of points around its margin,
and these points are terminals of the angles in the branch. If a
branch is triangular in cross section, it will have three points at
its socket, if quadrangular it will have four points, and the main
stem may have six or a dozen, or even more points. The main stem and
branches are made up entirely of these segments, each set at its
lower end in the socket of the segment behind or below it. These
green branches, rich in chlorophyl, manufacture for the plant all the
food that it needs. Late in the season this food is stored in the
rootstocks, so that early next spring the fertile plants, nourished
by this stored material, are able to push forth before most other
plants, and thus develop their spores early in the season. There is a
prothallium stage as in the ferns.
[Illustration: _The sterile plant of the field horsetail, one-half
natural size._]
Above where the whorl of stems comes from the main branch, may be
seen a row of upward-standing points which are the remnants of
leaves; each branch as it leaves the stem is set in a little dark cup
with a toothed rim. There is a nice gradation from the stout lower
part of the stem to the tip, which is as delicate as one of the side
branches.
The rootstock dies out behind the plant and pushes on ahead like the
rootstock of ferns. The true roots may be seen attached on the under
side. The food made in the summer is stored in little tubers, which
may be seen in the rootstocks.
LESSON CLXXVII
THE FIELD HORSETAIL
_The Fertile Plant_
_Leading thought_--The horsetail is a plant that develops spores
instead of seeds, and has green stems instead of leaves.
_Method_--In April and May, when the children are looking for
flowers, they will find some of these weird looking plants. These
should be brought to the schoolroom and the observation lesson given
there.
_Observations_--1. Where are these plants found? On what kind of soil?
2. In what respect does this plant differ from other plants in
appearance? Can you find any green part to it?
3. What color is the stem? Is it the same size its whole length? Is
it smooth or rough?
4. Do you see any leaves on the stems? Do you see the black-pointed
scales? In which direction do these scales point? Are they united at
the bottom? What sort of a ring do they make around the stem? Split a
stem lengthwise and see if there are joints, or nodes, where the ring
joins the stalk.
5. How does the “blossom” look? What color are the little discs that
make up the blossom? How are the discs set?
6. Take one of the plants which has the discs surrounded by green
ridges. Shake it over a white paper. What comes from it? Where does
it come from? Which discs on the stalk shed the green spores first?
_The Sterile Plants_
_Leading thought_--The horsetail or _Equicetum_ is nourished by very
different looking stems than those which bore the spores. It lacks
leaves, but its branches are green and do the work of making food for
the plant.
_Method_--The sterile plants of the horsetail do not appear for
several weeks after the fertile ones; they are much more numerous,
and do not resemble the fertile plants in form or color. These
sterile plants may be used for a lesson in September or October. Some
of these plants with their roots may be brought into the schoolroom
for study.
_Observations_--1. Has this plant any leaves? How does it make and
digest its food without leaves? What part of it is green? Wherever
there is green in a plant, there is the chlorophyl-factory for making
food. In the horsetail, then, what part of the plant does the work of
leaves?
2. Take off one little branch and study with the lens. How does it
look? Pull it apart. Where does it break easily? How many joints, or
nodes, are there in the branch?
3. Study the socket from which one of the segments was pulled off.
What do you see around its edge? How many of these points? Look at
the branch in cross section. How many angles has it? What relation
do the points bear to the angles? Do you think these points are all
there are left of true leaves?
4. How do the little green branches come off the main stem? How many
in a place? How many whorls of branches on the main stem?
5. Study the bases of the branches. What do you see? Look directly
above where the whorl of branches comes off the main stem. What do
you see? Cut the main stem in cross-section just below this place,
and see if there are as many little points as there are angles, or
ridges, in the stem. Do you suppose these little points are the
remnants of leaves on the main stem?
6. What kind of root has the horsetail? Do you think this long
running root is the true root or an underground stem? Where are the
true roots? Do you think the rootstock dies off at the oldest end
each year, like the fern? Can you find the little tubers in the
rootstock, which contain nourishment for next year’s spore-bearing
stalks?
THE HAIR-CAP MOSS, OR PIGEON WHEAT
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration:
Photo by Verne Morton.
_The hair-cap moss._]
The mosses are a special delight to children because they are green
and beautiful before other plants have gained their greenness in the
spring and after they have lost it in the fall; to the discerning
eye, a mossy bank or a mossy log is a thing of beauty always. When we
were children we regarded moss as a forest for fairy folk, each moss
stem being a tree, and we naturally concluded that fairy forests were
evergreen. We also had other diversions with pigeon wheat, for we
took the fruiting stem, pulled the cap off the spore-capsule, tucked
the other end of the red stem into the middle of the capsule, making
a beautiful coral ring with an emerald “set.” To be sure these rings
were rather too delicate to last long, but there were plenty more to
be had for nothing; so we made these rings into long chains which
we wore as necklaces for brief and happy moments, their evanescence
being one of their charms.
Pigeon wheat is a rather large moss which grows on dry knolls,
usually near the margins of damp woodlands in just those places
where wintergreens love to grow. In fall or winter it forms a
greenish brown mass of bristling stems; in the early summer the stems
are tipped with the vivid green of the new growth. The bristling
appearance comes from the long sharp leaves set thickly upon the
ruddy brown stems; each leaf is pretty to look at with a lens, which
reveals it as thick though narrow, grooved along the middle, the
edges usually armed with sharp teeth and the base clasping the stem.
These leaves, although so small, are wonderfully made; during the
hot, dry weather they shut up lengthwise and twist into the merest
threads, in order to keep their soft, green surfaces from losing
their moisture by exposure to the air; more than this, they lift
themselves and huddle close to the stem, and are thus as snug and
safe as may be from the effect of drought; but as soon as the rains
come, they straighten back at right angles to the stem, and curve
their tips downward in a joyful expanding. Bring in some of this moss
and let it dry, and then drop it into a glass of water and watch this
miracle of leaf movement! And yet it is no miracle but a mechanism
quite automatic--and therefore--like other miracles, when once they
are understood.
[Illustration: _Hair-cap moss._
1. fruit-bearing moss stem before fertilization; 1_a_, the
same stem after fruit is developed; _a_, where the ovule was
before fertilization; _b_, fruit stem; _c_, spore-capsule with
cap or veil upon it. 2, stem showing the starlike cups; _d_,
the cup in which was developed the pollen which fertilized
the ovule at _a_, this year; _e_, last year’s cup; _f_, the
cup of year before last; only the leaves from _e_ to _d_ are
alive. 3, spore capsule with the cap removed, showing the lid.
5, the cap or veil removed. 4, spore capsule with lid off and
shaking out the spores. 6, starlike cup in which the pollen is
developed. 7, leaf of moss; 8, the top of the spore capsule
showing the teeth around the edge between which the spores
sift out. 9, a part of a necklace chain made of the spore
capsules and their stems.
]
In early June the mossy knoll shows us the origin of the name pigeon
grass or pigeon wheat, for it is then covered with a forest of
shining, ruddy, stiff, little stems, each stem bearing on its tip a
woolly object about the size of a grain of wheat. But it is safe
to say that the pigeons and other birds enjoy our own kind of wheat
better than this, which is attributed to them.
A study of one of these wheat grains reveals it as covered with a
yellowish, mohair cap, ending in a golden brown peak at its tip,
as if it were the original pattern of the toboggan cap; it closes
loosely and downily around the stem below. This grain is the
spore-capsule of the moss; the hairy cap pulls off easily when seized
by its tip. This cap is present at the very beginning, even before
the stem lengthens, to protect the delicate tissues of the growing
spore-case; it is only through a lens that we can see it in all its
silky softness. The capsule revealed by the removal of the cap is
a beautiful green object, usually four-sided, set upon an elegant
little pedestal where it joins the coral stem, and with a lid on its
top like a sugar-bowl cover, with a point instead of a knob at its
center. When the spores are ripe, this lid falls off, and then if we
have a lens we may see another instance of moss mechanism. Looking at
the uncovered end of the capsule, we see a row of tiny teeth around
the margin, which seem to hold down an inner cover with a little
raised rim. The botanists have counted these teeth and find there are
64. The teeth themselves are not important, but the openings between
them are, since only through these openings can the spores escape.
In fact, the capsule is a pepper-box with a grating around its upper
edge instead of holes in its cover; and when it is fully ripe,
instead of standing right side up, it tips over so as to shake out
its spores more easily. These teeth are like the moss leaves; they
swell with moisture, and thus in rainy weather they, with the inner
cover, swell so that not a single spore can be shaken out. If spores
should come out during the rain, they would fall among the parent
plants where there is no room for growth. But when they emerge in dry
weather, the wind scatters them far and wide where there is room for
development.
When seen with the naked eye, the spores seem to be simply fine dust,
but each dust grain is able to produce moss plants. However, the
spore does not grow up into a plant like a seed, it grows into fine,
green, branching threads which push along the surface of damp soil;
on these threads little buds appear, each of which grows up into a
moss stem.
The spore-capsule is hardly the fruit of the moss plant. If we
examine the moss, we find that some stems end in yellowish cups
which look almost like blossoms; on closer examination, we find that
there are several of these cups, one below the other, with the stem
extending up through the middle. The upper cup matured this year,
the one below it last year, and so on. These cups are star-pointed,
and inside, at the bottom, is a starlike cluster of leaves.
Among the leaves of this star-rosette are borne the moss anthers
called _antheridii_, too small for us to see without a high power
microscope. The pollen from these anthers is blown over to other
plants, some of which produce ovules at their very tips, although
the ovule has no leaf-rosette to show where it is. This ovule, after
receiving the pollen, grows into the spore-capsule supported on its
coral stem. These--stem, capsule and all--grow up out of the mother
plant, the red stem is enlarged at its base, and fits into the moss
stem like a flagstaff in the socket. After the star-shaped cup has
shed its pollen, the stem grows up from its center for an inch or
so in height and bears new leaves, and next year will bear another
starry cup.
The brown leaves on the lower part of the moss stem are dead, and
only the green leaves on the upper part are living.
And this is the story of the moss cycle:
1. A plant with an ovule at its tip; another plant with a star-cup
holding the moss pollen which is sifted by wind over to the waiting
egg.
2. The egg or ovule as soon as fertilized develops into a
spore-capsule, and is lifted up into the world on a beautiful shining
stem and is protected by a silky cap.
3. The cap comes off; the lid of the spore-case falls off, the spores
are shaken out and scattered by the wind.
4. Those spores that find fitting places grow into a net of green
threads.
5. These green threads send up moss stems which repeat the story.
LESSON CLXXVIII
THE HAIR-CAP MOSS
_Leading thought_--The mosses, like the butterfly and the fern, have
several stages in their development. The butterfly stages are the
egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis, the butterfly. The moss stages
are the egg (or ovule), the spores, the branching green threads, the
moss plants with their green foliage. In June we can easily find all
these stages, except perhaps the branching thread stage.
_Method_--The children should bring to the schoolroom a basin of
moss in its fruiting stage; or still better, go with them to a knoll
covered with moss. Incidentally tell them that this moss, when dried,
is used by the Laplanders for stuffing their pillows, and that the
bears use it for their beds. Once, a long time ago, people believed
that a plant, by the shape of its leaf or flower, indicated its
nature as a medicine, and as this moss looked like hair, the water in
which it was steeped was used as a hair tonic.
_Observation_--1. Take a moss stem with a grain of pigeon wheat at
the end. Examine the lower part of the stalk. How are the leaves
arranged on it? Examine one of the little leaves through a lens and
describe its shape, its edges, and the way it joins the stem. Are the
lower leaves the same color as the upper ones? Why?
2. Describe the pretty shining stem of the fruit, which is called the
pedicel. Is it the same color for its entire length? Can you pull it
easily from the main plant? Describe how its base is embedded in the
tip of the plant.
3. Note the silken cap on a grain of the pigeon wheat. This is called
the veil. Is it all the same color? Is it grown fast to the plant
at its lower margin? Take it by the tip, and pull it off. Is this
done easily? Describe what it covers. This elegant little green vase
is called a spore-capsule. How many sides has it? Describe its base
which stands upon the stem. Describe the little lid. Pull off the
lid; is there another lid below it? Can you see the tiny teeth around
the edge which hold this lid in place? Ask your teacher, or read in
the books, the purpose of this.
4. Do all the spore vases stand straight up, or do some bend over?
5. Do you think the silken cap falls off of itself after a while? Can
you find any capsules where the cap or veil and the lid have fallen
off? See if you can shake any dust out of such a spore vase. What
do you think this dust is? Ask your teacher, or read in the books,
about moss spores and what happens if they find a damp place in which
to grow.
6. Hunt among the moss for some stems that have pretty, yellowish,
starlike cups at their tips. How does the inside of one of these cups
look? Ask the teacher to tell you what grows in this cup. Look down
the stem and see if you can find last year’s cup. The cup of two
years ago? Measured by these cups how old do you think this moss stem
is?
7. Select some stems of moss, both those that bear the fruit and
those that bear the cups. After they are dried describe how the
leaves look. Examine the plant with a lens and note how these leaves
are folded and twisted. Do the leaves stand out from the stem or lie
close to it? Is this action of the leaves of any use to the plant in
keeping the water from evaporating? How do the star-cups look when
dry?
8. Place these dried stems in a glass of water and describe what
happens to the cup. Examine some of the dried moss and the wet moss
with a lens, and describe the difference. Of what use to the moss is
this power of changing form when damp?
_Reference_--First Lessons in Plant Life, Atkinson.
MUSHROOMS AND OTHER FUNGI
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: T]
There is something uncanny about plants which have no green parts;
they seem like people without blood. It is, therefore, no wonder
that many superstitions cluster about toadstools. In times of old,
not only did the toads sit on them, but fairies danced upon them and
used them for umbrellas. The poisonous qualities of some species made
them also a natural ingredient of the witch’s cauldron. But science,
in these days, brings revelations concerning these mysterious plants
which are far more wonderful than the web which superstition wove
about them in days of yore.
When we find plants with no green parts which grow and thrive, though
unable to manufacture their own organic food through the alchemy of
chlorophyl, sunlight and air, we may safely infer that in one way
or another they gain the products of this alchemy at second hand.
Such plants are either parasites or saprophytes; if parasites, they
steal the food from the cells of living plants; if saprophytes, they
live on such of this food material as remains in dead wood, withered
leaves, or soils enriched by their remains.
Thus, we find mushrooms and other fungus fruiting bodies, pallid,
brown-olive, yellow or red in color, but with no signs of the living
green of other plants; and this fact reveals their history. Some of
them are parasites, as certain species of bracket fungi which are
the deadly enemies of living trees; but most of the fungus species
that we ordinarily see are saprophytes, and live on dead vegetation.
Fungi, as a whole, are a great boon to the world. Without them our
forests would be choked out with dead wood. Decay is simply the
process by which fungi and other organisms break down dead material,
so that the major part of it returns to the air in gaseous form, and
the remainder, now mostly humus, mingles with the soil.
As a table delicacy, mushrooms are highly prized. A very large
number of species are edible. But every year the newspapers report
deaths resulting from eating the poisonous kinds--the price of an
ignorance which comes from a lack of the powers of observation
developed in nature-study. It would be very unwise for any teacher to
give rules to guide her pupils in separating edible from poisonous
mushrooms, since the most careful directions may be disregarded or
misunderstood. She should emphasize the danger incurred by mistaking
a poisonous for an edible species. One small button of the deadly
kind, if eaten, may cause death. A few warning rules may be given,
which if firmly impressed on the pupils, may result in saving human
life.
[Illustration: _White form of the deadly Amanita (A. phalloides).
Note the form of the ring and the cup at base of stem._
Photo by G. F. Atkinson.]
First and most important, avoid all mushrooms that are covered with
scales, or that have the base of the stem included in a sac, for
two of the poisonous species, often mistaken for the common edible
mushroom, have these distinguishing characters. Care should be taken
that every specimen be collected in a way to show the base of the
stem, since in some poisonous species this sac is hidden beneath the
soil.
Second, avoid the young, or button, stages, since they are similar in
appearance in species that are edible and in those that are poisonous.
Third, avoid those that have milky juices; unless the juices are
reddish in color, the mushrooms should not be eaten.
Fourth, avoid those with shiny, thin, or brightly colored caps, and
those with whitish or clay-colored spores.
Fifth, no mushroom or puffball should be eaten after its meat has
begun to turn brown or has become infested with fly larvæ.
HOW MUSHROOMS LOOK AND HOW THEY LIVE
[Illustration: T]
There are many kinds of mushrooms varying greatly in form, color and
size, but wherever they appear it means that sometime previous the
mushroom spores have been planted there. There they threw out threads
which have penetrated the food substance and gained a successful
growth, which finally resulted in sending up into the world the
fruiting organs. In general shape these consist of a stem with a cap
upon it, making it usually somewhat umbrella-shaped. Attached to the
cap, and usually under it, are plate-like growths called gills, or
a fleshy surface which is full of pores. In the case of the gills,
each side of each plate develops spores. These, as fine as dust, are
capable of producing other mushrooms.
[Illustration:
_Cone-shaped. Bell-shaped. Convex. Plane._Raised at center.
Depressed. Funnel form._]
[Illustration:
_The common edible mushroom, in button stages, mycelium or
spawn also shown._
Photo by G. F. Atkinson.]
In the common edible species of mushroom (_Agaricus campestris_), the
stem is white and almost cylindrical, tapering slightly toward the
base; it is solid although the core is not so firm as the outside.
When it first pushes above the ground, it is in what is called the
“button stage” and consists of a little, rounded cap covered with
a membrane which is attached to the stem. Later the cap spreads
wide, for it is naturally umbrella-shaped, and it tears loose this
membrane, leaving a piece of it attached to the stem; this remnant
is called the ring or collar. The collar is very noticeable in many
species, but in the common mushroom it soon shrivels and disappears.
The cap is at first rounded and then convex; its surface is at first
smooth, looking soft and silky; but as the plant becomes old, it is
often broken up into triangular scales which are often dark brown;
although the color of the cap is usually white or pale brown. The
gills beneath the cap are at first white, but later, as the spores
mature, they become brownish black because of the ripened spores.
_References_--Mushrooms, a most excellent and practical book with
many beautiful pictures, written and illustrated by Professor George
F. Atkinson; Henry Holt & Co., N. Y., $3.00; The Mushroom Book,
Marshall, fully illustrated, $4.00, Doubleday, Page & Co.; One
Thousand American Fungi, McIlvaine, illustrated, Bowen-Merrill Co.,
$5.00; Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms, W. H. Gibson, very fully
illustrated, Harper and Bros., $3.50.
LESSON CLXXIX
MUSHROOMS
_Leading thought_--Mushrooms are the fruiting organs of the fungi
which grow in the form of threads, spreading in every direction
through the food material. The dust which falls from ripe mushrooms
is made up of spores which are not true seeds, but which will start a
new growth of the fungus.
[Illustration: _Dark form of the Amanita (A. phalloides). Compare
with white form on page 707._
Photo by George F. Atkinson.]
_Method_--The ideal method would be to study the mushrooms in the
field and forest, making an excursion for the purpose of collecting
as many species as possible. But the lesson may be given from
specimens brought into the schoolroom by pupils, care being taken
to bring with them the soil, dead wood or leaves on which they were
found growing. After studying one species thus, encourage the pupils
to bring in as many others as possible. There are a few terms which
the pupils should learn to use, and the best method of teaching
them is to place the diagrams shown on pages 708, 711, 712, on the
blackboard, and leave them there for a time.
Since mushrooms are especially good subjects for water-color and
pencil studies, it would add much to the interest of the work if each
pupil, or the school as a whole, should make a portfolio of sketches
of all the species found. With each drawing there should be made on a
supplementary sheet a spore-print of the species. White paper should
be covered very thinly with white of egg or mucilage, so as to hold
fast the discharged spores when making these prints for portfolio or
herbarium.
_Observations_--1. Where was the mushroom found? If on the ground,
was the soil wet or dry? Was it in open fields or in woods? Or was it
found on rotten wood, fallen leaves, old trees or stumps, or roots?
Were there many or few specimens?
2. Is the cap cone-shaped, bell-shaped, convex, plane, concave, or
funnel-form? Has it a raised point at the center? How wide is it?
3. What is the color of the upper surface of the cap when young? When
old? Has it any spots of different colors on it? Has it any striate
markings, dots or fine grains on its surface? Is its texture smooth
or scaly? Is its surface dull, or polished, or slimy? Break the cap
and note the color of the juice. Is it milky?
[Illustration: _A spore print from the common edible mushroom._
Photo by George F. Atkinson.]
4. Look beneath the cap. Is the under surface divided into plates
like the leaves of a book, or is it porous?
5. The plates which may be compared to the leaves of a book are
called gills, although they are not for the purpose of breathing, as
are the gills of a fish. Are there more gills near the edge of the
cap than near the stem? How does this occur? What are the colors of
the gills? Are the gills the same color when young as when old? Are
the lower edges of the gills sharp, blunt or saw-toothed?
6. Break off a cap and note the relation of the gills to the stem. If
they do not join the stem at all they are termed “free.” If they end
by being joined to the stem, they are called “adnate” or “adnexed.”
If they extend down the stem they are called “decurrent.”
7. Take a freshly opened mushroom, cut off the stem, even with the
cap, and set the cap, gills down, on white paper; cover with a
tumbler, or other dish to exclude draught; leave it for twenty-four
hours and then remove the cover, lift the cap carefully and examine
the paper. What color is the imprint? What is its shape? Touch it
gently with a pencil and see what makes the imprint. Can you tell by
the pattern where this fine dust came from? Examine the dust with a
lens. This dust is made up of mushroom spores, which are not true
seeds, but which do for mushrooms what seeds do for plants. How do
you think the spores are scattered? Do you know that one little grain
of this spore dust would start a new growth of mushrooms?
[Illustration: _The common edible mushroom_ (_Agaricus campestris_),
_showing button stage, vanishing ring and gills._
Photo by George F. Atkinson.]
8. Look at the stem. What is its length? Its color? Is it slender or
stocky? Is its surface shiny, smooth, scaly, striate or dotted? Has
it a collar or ring around it near the top? What is the appearance of
this ring? Is it fastened to the stem, or will it slide up and down?
Is the stem solid or hollow? Is it swollen at its base? Is its base
set in a sac or cup, or is it covered with a membrane which scales
off? Do you know that the most poisonous of mushrooms have the sac or
the scaly covering at the base of the stem?
9. Examine with a lens the material on which the mushroom was
growing; do you see any threads in it that look like mold? Find if
you can what these threads do for the mushroom? If you were to go
into the mushroom business what would you buy to start your beds?
What is mushroom “spawn?”
[Illustration: _Mushroom with parts named._]
10. If you can find where the common edible mushrooms grow
plentifully, or if you know of any place where they are grown for the
market, get some of the young mushrooms when they are not larger than
a pea and others that are larger and older. These young mushrooms are
called “buttons.” Find by your own investigation the relation between
the buttons and the threads. Can you see the gills in the button?
Why? What becomes of the veil over the gills as the mushrooms grow
large?
[Illustration: _Gills free._]
[Illustration: _Gills adnexed._]
[Illustration: _Gills decurrent._]
11. Do you know the difference between mushrooms and toadstools? Do
you know the common edible mushroom when you see it? What characters
separate this from the poisonous species? What is the “death cup,” as
it is called, which covers the base of the stem of the most common
poisonous species?
[Illustration: _A common species of puffball, the three at the left
showing early stages, the one at the right ripe and discharging
spores._
Photo by G. F. Atkinson.]
PUFFBALLS
_Teacher’s Story_
The puffballs are always interesting to children, because of the
“smoke” which issues from them in clouds when they are pressed
between thumb and finger. The common species are white or creamy
when young; and some of the species are warty or roughened, so
that as children we called them “little lambs.” They grow on the
ground usually, some in wet, shady places, and others, as the giant
species, in grassy fields in late summer. This giant puffball always
excites interest, when found. It is a smoothish, white, rounded mass,
apparently resting on the grass as if thrown there; when lifted it
is seen that it has a connection below at its center, through its
mycelium threads, which form a network in the soil. It is often a
foot in diameter, and specimens four feet through have been recorded.
When its meat is solid and white to the very center, it makes
very good food. The skin should be pared off, the meat sliced and
sprinkled with salt and pepper and fried in hot fat until browned.
All the puffballs are edible, but ignorant persons might mistake
the button stages of some of the poisonous mushrooms for little
puffballs, and it is not well to encourage the use of small puffballs
for the table.
A common species--“the beaker puffball”--is pear-shaped, with its
small end made fast to the ground, which is permeated with its
vegetative threads.
The interior of a puffball, “the meat,” is made up of the threads
and spores. As they ripen, the threads break up so that with the
spores they make the “smoke,” as can be seen if the dust is examined
through a microscope. The outer wall may become dry and brittle and
break open to allow the spores to escape, or one or more openings
may appear in it as spore doors. The spores of puffballs were used
extensively in pioneer days to stop the bleeding of wounds and
especially for nosebleed.
[Illustration: _An earth-star._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
In one genus of the puffball family, the outer coat splits off in
points on maturing, like an orange peel cut lengthwise in six or
seven sections but still remaining attached to the base. There is an
inner coat that remains as a protection to the spores, so that these
little balls are set each in a little star-shaped saucer. These star
points straighten out flat or even curl under in dry weather, but
when damp they lift up and again envelop the ball to a greater or
less extent.
LESSON CLXXX
PUFFBALLS
[Illustration: Photo by Verne Morton.
_A big puffball._]
_Leading thought_--The puffballs are fungi that grow from the
threads, or mycelium, which permeate the ground or other matter, on
which the puffballs grow. The puffballs are the fruiting organs, and
“smoke” which issues from them is largely made up of spores, which
are carried off by the wind and sown and planted.
_Method_--Ask the pupils to bring to school any of the globular or
pear-shaped fungi in the early stages when they are white, taking
pains to bring them on the soil or wood on which they are growing.
_Observations_--1. Where did you find the puffball? On what was it
growing? Were there many growing in company? Remove the puffball, and
examine the place where it stood with a lens to find the matted and
crisscrossed fungus threads.
2. What is the size and shape of the puffball? Is its surface smooth
or warty? What is its color inside and outside?
3. Have you ever found the giant puffball, which may become four
inches to four feet through? Where was it growing? Have you ever
eaten this puffball sliced and fried? Do you know by the looks of the
meat when it is fit to eat?
4. If the puffball is ripe, what is its color outside and in? What is
the color of its “smoke?” Does the smoke come out through the broken
covering of the puffball, or are there one or more special openings
to allow it to escape?
5. Puff some of the “smoke” on white paper and examine it with a
lens. What do you think this dust is? Of what use is it to the
puffball?
6. Have you ever found what are called earth-stars, which look like
little puffballs set in star-shaped cups? If you find these note the
following things:
a. Of what is the star-shaped base made? Was it always there?
b. Let this star saucer become very dry; how does it act?
c. Wet it; and how does it behave then?
d. Where and how does the spore dust escape from the earth-stars?
7. For what medicinal purpose is the “smoke” of the puffball
sometimes used?
THE BRACKET FUNGI
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration:
Photo by Verne Morton.
_A bracket fungus._]
There are some naturalists who think that one kind of life is as
good as another and therefore call all things good. Perhaps this is
the only true attitude for the nature lover. To such the bracketlike
fungi which appear upon the sides of our forest and shade trees are
simply an additional beauty, a bountiful ornamentation. But some of
us have become special pleaders in our attitude toward life, and
those of us who have come to feel the grandeur of tree life can but
look with sorrow upon these fungus outgrowths, for they mean that the
doom of the tree is sealed.
There are many species of bracket fungi. Three of these are very
common. The gray bracket, gray above and with creamy surface below
(_Polyporous applanatus_) is a favorite for amateur etchers, who with
a sharp point make interesting sketches upon this naturally prepared
plate; this species often grows to great size and is frequently very
old. Another species (_P. lucidus_) is in color a beautiful mahogany,
or coral-red above and has a peculiar stem from which it depends; the
stem and upper surface are polished as if burnished and the lower
surface is yellowish white. Another species (_P. sulphurens_) is
sulphur yellow above and below; usually many of these yellow brackets
are grouped together, their fan-shaped caps overlapping. Many of the
shelf fungi live only on dead wood, and those are an aid in reducing
dead branches and stumps until they crumble and become again a part
of the soil. However, several of the species attack living trees and
do great damage. They can gain access to the living tree only through
an injured place in the bark, a break caused perhaps by the wind,
by a bruise from a falling tree, or more often from the hack of the
careless wood-chopper; often they gain entrance through an unhealed
knot-hole. To one who understands trees and loves them, their patient
striving to heal these wounds inflicted by forces they cannot
withstand is truly pathetic. After the wound is made and before the
healing is accomplished, the wind may sift into the wound the almost
omnipresent spores of these fungi and the work of destruction begins.
From the spores grows the mycelium, the fungus threads which push
into the heart of the wood getting nourishment from it as they go.
When we see wood thus diseased we say that it is rotting, but rotting
merely means the yielding up of the body substance of the tree to
these voracious fungus threads. They push in radially and then grow
upward and downward, weakening the tree where it most needs strength
to withstand the onslaught of the wind. Later these parasitic threads
may reach the cambium layer, the living ring of the tree trunk, and
kill the tree entirely; but many a tree has lived long with the
fungus attacking its heartwood. A bracket fungus found by Professor
Atkinson was eighty years old; however, this may have shortened the
life of the tree a century or more.
After these fungus threads are thoroughly established in the tree,
they again seek a wound in the protecting bark where they may push
out and build the fruiting organ, which we call the bracket. This
may be at the same place where the fatal entry was made, or it may
be far from it. The bracket is at first very small and is composed
of a layer of honeycomb cells, closed and hard above and opening
below--cells so small that we can see the cell openings only with
a lens. These cells are not hexagonal like the honeycomb, but are
tubes packed together. Spores are developed in each tube. Next year
another layer of cells grows beneath this first bracket and extends
out beyond it; each year it is thus added to, making it thicker and
marking its upper surface with concentric rings around the point
of attachment. The creamy surface of the great bracket fungus on
which etchings are made, is composed of a layer of these minute
spore-bearing tubes. Not all bracket fungi show their age by these
annual growths, for some species form new shelves every year, which
decay after the spores are ripened and shed.
When once the mycelium of such fungus becomes established, the tree
is doomed and its lumber made worthless even though, as sometimes
happens, the tree heals its wounds so that the fungus is imprisoned
and can never send out fruiting brackets. Thus it is most important
to teach the pupils how to protect trees from the attacks of these
enemies, which are devastating our forests and which sometimes attack
our orchards and shade trees.
As soon as a tree is bruised, the wound should be painted or covered
with a coat of tar. If the wind breaks a branch, the splinters left
hanging should be sawed off, leaving a smooth stump, and this be
painted. While ordinary paint if renewed each year will suffice,
experiment has shown that the coat of tar is better and should be
used.
Especially should teachers impress on pupils the harm done by
careless hacking with axe or hatchet. We shall do an invaluable
service in the protection of our forests, if we teach the rising
generation the respectful treatment of trees--which is due living
organisms whose span of life may cover centuries.
LESSON CLXXXI
BRACKET FUNGI
_Leading thought_--The fungi which we see growing shelflike from
trees, are deadly enemies to the trees. Their spores germinate and
penetrate at some open wound and the growing fungus weakens the wood.
Method--It is desirable that a tree on which shelf fungus grows
should be studied by the class, for this is a lesson on the care of
trees. After this lesson the fungus itself may be studied at leisure
in the schoolroom.
_Observations_--1. On what kind of a tree is the bracket fungus
growing? Is it alive or dead? If living, does it look vigorous or is
it decaying?
2. Is the fungus bracket growing against the side of the tree, or
does it stand out on a stem?
3. Look at the place where the bracket joined the tree. Does it seem
to be a part of the wood?
4. What color is the fungus on its upper surface? How large is it?
How thick near the tree? How thick at the edge? Can you detect
concentric layers or rings? If it is the large species used for
etching, cut down through it with a knife or hatchet and count the
layers; this should show its age.
5. Look at the lower surface. How does it appear to the naked eye?
If you scratch it with a pin or knife does the bruise show? Examine
the surface with a lens and describe what you see. Cut or break the
fungus and note that each of these holes is an opening to a little
tube. In each of these tubes spores are borne.
6. Have you ever seen toadstools that, instead of having the leaflike
gills, have beneath the cap a porous surface like a little honeycomb
or like the under side of the shelf fungi?
7. How many kinds of shelf fungi can you find? Which of them is on
living trees, and which on stumps or dead wood?
8. If the fungus is on a living tree, then the tree is ruined, for
the fungus threads have worked through it and weakened it so that it
will break easily and is of no use as lumber. There must have been an
open wound in the tree where the fungus entered; see whether you can
find this wound. There must also have been a wound where the shelf
grew out; see whether you can detect it. If the tree should heal all
its wounds after the fungus entered, what would become of the fungus?
9. What does the shelf fungus feed on? What part of it corresponds to
the roots and leaves of other plants? What part may be compared to
the flowering and fruiting parts of plants?
10. What treatment must we give trees to keep them free from this
enemy?
[Illustration: _The edible Boletus (B. edulis). This has tubes below
the cap instead of gills. The spores are developed within the tubes,
as in the bracket fungi._
Photo by G. F. Atkinson.]
LESSON CLXXXII
HEDGEHOG FUNGI
There is something mysterious about all fungi, but perhaps none of
these wonderful organisms so strangely impresses the observer as the
fountainlike masses of creamy white or the branching white coral that
we see growing on a dead tree trunk. The writer remembers as a child
that the finding of these woodland treasures made her feel as if she
were in the presence of the supernatural, as if she had discovered a
fairy grotto or a kobold cave. The prosaic name of hedgehog fungi has
been applied to these exquisite growths. Their life story is simple
enough. The spores falling upon dead wood start threads which ramify
within it and feed on its substance, until strong enough to send out
a fruiting organ. This consists of a stem, dividing into ascending
branches; from these branches, depending like the stalactites in a
cave, are masses of drooping spines, the surface of each bearing
the spores. And it is so natural for these spines to hang earthward
that they are invariably so placed when the tree is in the position
in which they grew. There is one species called the “satyr’s
beard,” sometimes found on living trees, which is a mere bunch of
downward-hanging spines; the corallike species is called _Hydnum
coraloides_, and the one that looks like an exquisite white frozen
fountain, and may be seen in late summer or early autumn growing from
dead limbs or branches, is the bear’s head fungus; it is often eight
inches across.
[Illustration: _The bear’s head fungus._
Photo by George F. Atkinson.]
_Observations_--1. These fungi come from a stem which extends into
the wood.
2. This stem divides into many branchlets.
3. From these branchlets there hang long fleshy fringes like
miniature icicles.
4. These fringes always hang downward when the fungus is in natural
position.
5. These fringes bear the spores.
LESSON CLXXXIII
THE SCARLET SAUCER (_Sarcocypha coccinea_)