CHAPTER XLVII

HAVE A SEAT ON A TOAD STOOL

“MOTHER NATURE has taught plant mothers many secrets as to how to take care of their babies,” Bet continued, “but perhaps her most amusing trick is the wrapping of certain seed babies in seed cases which look like worms or bugs. Did you ever notice the seeds of the castor oil plant?”

“They look exactly like bugs!” Mary Frances exclaimed.

“Almost,” Bet nodded; “probably to make some bird think it’s going to have a fine meal. When the seed has been carried a little distance, the bird will discover its mistake, and drop the seed baby in a new home.”

“What a cunning trick!” exclaimed Eleanor.

“Isn’t it!” said Mary Frances. “I remember now, that I once saw on a plant what I thought was a worm, and when I tried to brush it off, it burst open, letting the seeds scatter about.”

“I wonder if that wasn’t this plant?” Bet asked as she held up a dried flower head, out of which a worm seemed to be crawling.

“That’s it!” cried Mary Frances. “What is the plant called, please?”

“It has a very long name,” Bouncing Bet replied; “too long for you to remember, I fear; but it means a ‘coiled worm,’ and shows how perfectly one plant mother has performed this comical trick.”

“I suspect all plant mothers have some trick,” Mary Frances ventured.

“That leads me to tell you about one kind of plants we’ve not yet mentioned.

They are the—

PLANTS WITHOUT FLOWERS

If plants have no flowers, you will ask, how can the new baby plants grow? Can there be seed babies without flowers?

No, flowerless plants do not bear seeds, but they do have plant babies, otherwise we would not have ferns, mushrooms, and many other important plants.

The plant babies of flowerless plants come from spores, not seeds.

Did you ever gather Christmas ferns? They are the ones which cheer you so with their beautiful green color in the woods when so many other things are asleep in winter.

On the back of the fern leaves, perhaps you have noticed little brown rusty-looking spots.

In these spots or spore-cases are the spores. When the spore cases are ripe, they burst open and throw out the spores which look like a fine dust.

Each grain of this dust must live in a moist, warm place, and pass through several changes before a baby fern can grow.

Mosses grow in a similar way. So, also, do—

MUSHROOMS OR TOAD STOOLS

Mushrooms are flowerless plants, and they do not grow from seeds, but from spores.

The spores fall from the pretty gills on the under side of the umbrella part of the plant.

Of course, since they have no green color, you know that mushrooms do not make their own food. They, like most other—

FUNGI,

live on dead vegetable matter.

Mushrooms grow by means of thread-like feeders which they send down into the dead material which they use.

It is a good thing that fungi use dead trees and leaves and other dead matter for food; otherwise, these things would keep on piling up!

I wish to tell you of one kind of fungus, though, which lives on living material in trees. It is called the—

BRACKET FUNGUS

Perhaps you have thought the bracket-like shelves you have seen on some tree, pretty.

You did not know, then, that some spores of the bracket fungi had fastened into a wound in the bark, and had sent long threads down into the living part of the tree.

The poor tree cannot help itself, and after a while it will die of starvation because the bracket fungi have used up all its food material.

So do be careful never to injure the bark of a tree; for wherever it is torn, it leaves an open wound—just as when you scratch your finger or your arm.

There are other fungi which you’ve seen oftener than toad stools. They are—

MOLDS

You’ve often seen the mold which comes on bread which has been left in a rather dark, warm, moist place.

The mold comes from the thousands of germs in the dust in air. These germs settle down and use anything possible for food, and send out spore-dust to make more germs.

While they are growing and making spore cases, they appear as molds and mildews.

The germs in the dust are too tiny to be seen without a microscope, and their near relatives—

BACTERIA

are about the tiniest of living things.

They grow everywhere. Some do us harm and some benefit us wonderfully.

Cheese is made out of milk by one of the good kind; another kind makes vinegar; some other kinds fasten themselves to the inside of our mouths and bodies, bringing disease, like typhoid fever and consumption.

When we keep our bodies and mouths and teeth clean, we help our blood to destroy such bad bacteria.

Sunlight destroys bad germs.

Fresh air destroys bad germs. You should have plenty of fresh air both day and night.

“Pshaw,” said Jack, as Bet finished speaking; “toad stools are meant for fairies to sit on, and mushrooms for human beings to eat. What kind of nonsense are you trying to teach, anyhow, Bet?”

The girls laughed, for they saw Jack wink as he spoke.

“Come,” said he, “you’ve been standing too long—come, have a seat on a toad stool?”

With that he ran toward a beautiful white mushroom, and Bet followed.

When they were seated, Mary Frances asked:

“What is the difference between a mushroom and a toad stool?”

“Well,” Jack replied, “I guess there isn’t really any difference, although some people think that toad stools, if eaten, poison people and that mushrooms are harmless, but some mushrooms are very poisonous, so do not try to use any you gather, unless some grown people know them to be harmless, for some of the most beautiful would kill you the most quickly.”

“I’ve eaten mushrooms,” said Eleanor, “but they were canned ones.”

“Oh, they are safe enough,” Bet smiled.

Then the fairy clock struck the half-hour.