Flowerless plants : how and where they grow / by S. Leonard Bastin.

  • Bastin, S. Leonard.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Flowerless plants : how and where they grow / by S. Leonard Bastin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    slime is present. This is composed of masses of algae, myriads of which are always floating about in the air ready to settle on any moist position. The growth of the algae all tends towards the break up of the hard and un- inviting surface of the wall, and quite soon mosses and lichens appear upon the scene. Probably the mortar will become outhned with velvety green moss, whilst big patches of grey lichens will spread themselves over the surface of the bricks. These humble plants are able to secure all they need from the air and water, coupled with the small amount of mineral matter which they can absorb from the material of which the wall is constructed. Generations of mosses live and die upon the wall, and eventually in the cracks and crevices there will be quite a nice accumulation of decayed vegetable matter. A gust of wind, or a passing bird, is responsible for the placing of the seed of the first flowering plant to grow up on this world in miniature. Years go by, and as this wall is still left in the hands of Nature, the accumulation of soil from decayed plants may be so considerable that even a small tree is able to establish itself. Thus within the span