“And what is the difference,” said Agnes, “between these sporules and seeds?”
“Every seed,” said Mr. Merton, “contains an embryo,—that is, a miniature plant,—which has one or two leaves, a root, and, generally, an ascending shoot, quite small, and curiously folded up, but still plainly to be distinguished, either by the naked eye, or with a microscope. Now a sporule has no embryo, and no traces of a plant can be discovered in it till it has begun to grow.”
“I am afraid that I do not quite understand you, papa,” said Agnes.
“It can hardly be expected that you should,” said Mrs. Merton; “but it will be sufficient for you to remember that cryptogamous plants have no flowers, and no regularly formed seeds.”
Fig. 9.
Winged Fucus. Bladder Fucus. Tangle.
“You will observe, Agnes,” said Mr. Merton, “that this sea-weed does not grow in the earth, like a land plant, but it is merely attached to any stone or other object that it finds in the sea, to which it fixes itself by means of its clasping roots.”
Agnes now dropped her long plant of tangle, which, it must be confessed, was very troublesome to carry, and which was loaded with the sand that adhered to it as she swept it along the beach; and, instead of it, she picked up a smaller piece of what she found to be the common Bladder-Fucus.
“This,” said Mr. Merton, “is one of the commonest of all the kinds of sea-weed; and its popular name is Sea-wrack. It is very abundant in the western isles of Scotland; where it is gathered in great quantities for making kelp.”
“And what is kelp, papa?” Agnes asked.