Page 55 - My FlipBook

The best exhibitions of the leafy Cryptogams that we
see frequently in this latitude are the ferns, having the roots,
stems and leaves and multiplying purely by spores. This
order of plant is very abundant in many regions, but here in
this latitude we do not see very many species.
The Thallophytcs are divided into the algca and the fungi.
They have no leaves or roots.
Here we get another prominent division. All of the
plants above the fungi have the green coloring matter, or
chlorophyl, and must have sunlight in order that this
chlorophyl may develop. No chlorophyl develops without
sunlight. They may grow and develop in a certain degree
without sunlight, as potatoes grow in a cellar, which most
of you have seen, perhaps. The stems will be perfectly
white, devoid of chlorophyl, but they will never mature with-
out the sunlight and the development of the green coloring
matter. It is just as impossible for one of these plants to
grow and mature, become complete, without sunlight and
the development of chlorophyl, as it is for us to continue to
live and exist without breathing. Then among the Thallo-
phytcs, between the Algea and the Fungi, we get this sharp
distinction.
The Algea lare simple cells, not producing roots,
leaves or stems, yet having the green color, having the
chlorophyl and requiring sunlight for their development.
Now, these plants may be microscopic, many of them are
microscopic in size, or they may form considerable masses,
as we may see them creeping over rocks in damp places, cov-
ering large portions of the surface with their green color, or
forming masses of green, slimy in consistence, in ponds or
in pools, or even in running streams ; or we may find them
distributed as minute particles, microscopic in size, through
large bodies of water, causing the water to assume a green-
ish tinge by the presence of millions of these bodies that can-
not be seen except with the microscope. I remember going
to a lake for the purpose of gathering Algea for study, and
we found an area of water several acres in extent with a dis-
tinctly green color, and yet it seemed clear, nothing ap-
peared upon it or in it ; I took some of it up in a tumbler and
it gave a decided greenish tinge to the tumbler; poured some
of that into an ordinary test tube and it appeared perfectly

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