"That is where the mushroom keeps its seeds, too," he said. "We do not call them seeds, though, but spores. Fern seeds are called spores, also."
"But toads do sit under mushrooms, don't they?" insisted little Prue.
"Why, yes, I suppose a great many toads have done that, but they are really plants, as Davy says."
Davy had become thoughtful.
"Are they Exogens?" he asked, "or Endogens? I should think the mushrooms might be Endogens from their stems, and the fern Exogens from their leaves."
"Well, Davy, that is very well said, but they are really neither one. They belong to a great class of their own. Exogens and Endogens are only the two kinds of flowering plants. These mushrooms and ferns and mosses and lichens all belong to the flowerless plants, and are called Crip-tog-a-mous—a very long word, which I do not expect you to remember. The divisions of flowerless plants are too hard a study for little folks, but the plants are all very interesting, and we can gather them, and see how they grow. In fact, I think we will have to call our meadow and our beach your August garden."
"But there isn't anything on the beach," said Prue.
"How about all that seaweed you were gathering yesterday?"
"But does that really grow like our plants on the shore?" asked Davy.