The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-12-14

u III Zine The SpOre grows ana SO
'noio are new horsetails.
Anere is a pretty method of movement
IN which gravity is not only used. but
'no parent plant absolutely lowers down
q yong one-attaching it by rope or
iiiaihent-and letting it go at the right
tihe' The detachment and distribution
Vi 1he sprout and offshoots of many
species OF the house leek (Semperyivum)
are OF this marvellous character. The
print shows the parent plant on stone.
Like o sentlent creature, it seems to
know that there is something like ID precl-
| pice under it.
10 the extreme right of the i'll ustration
is parent plant, with it's cord attached
to baby. In time the weight OF the
little pendant is sufficient to sever the
cord, and the baby drops and is not in
jured by the fall The wind, too, acts On
the ligature of the little plant, and 1T
sways to and fro like pendulum. The
object of the mother plant is to give the
offspring a chance The country she
lives on is too crowded. OF course, some
of the babes roll away out of existence.
Then it is the survival of the fttest, or
an affair Of environment.
Offshoots Of some plants seem to lock
directly to such assistance as animals can
give. There are the Mamillarias OF
Mexico. They drop their offshoots and
have them covered with bristles and
barbs. Any animal, saye,a horse or an
Ok, is certain to get one Of the burrs in
his paws. AS it is a most inconyenient
lappendage, after the animal has limped
on little ways he at once proceeds to
get rid of the burr. That is the oppor-
free transportation and so it takes root
and grows, and is sure in time to bother
new generation of animals.
Birds do not alone lend themselves as
carriers of seeds, but they are transport
ers of the offshoots Of many plants. Some
of these water plants develop kind of
slime which sticks to the birds legs Or
tail feathers. Then, when the birds preen
and clean themselves, the plants find a
new place to grow in.
If Goethe had not been so supremacy
great in literature he would have been q
master hand in natural history, for he
was endowed with the keenest powers of
observation. When he was in Itely, he
happened by chance to throw some seed
capsules into an open box. "Then, one
night" as he writes it, II heard crack
ling noise, and Immediately afterwarl a
sound like the impact of small bodies
against the wall and ceiIing." ("Travels
in Italy.'') At once Goethe got to the
bottom of it, and he explained it precisely
"The dryness of the room had caused the
|ffuitpod to ripen in few days to the
requisite degree of elasticity.
There ara fruits as the Dorycenium and
Acanthus, which are the types of the
fruit singers. When the fruit is ripe, the
tissues around them, becoming dry, get
tenser and tenser. There is a break at a
certain place; next sudden contraction,
and the seeds are sIung. The mother
plant wants to get rid of her offspring.
/ There is the oxalis. The stem has
one unripe and one ripe fruit on it.
The one not yet matured bends its
head The ripe one is erect and distended.
1t bursts, and away fly the seeds. 1t is a
mimic explosion.
Nature is wonderfully ingenious in her
mechanism, and makes all kinds of direct
and compou d springs. Some of the
methods of throwing off seeds are so vio-
lent that the final throwing off has been
compared to the action of a cataput.
Mr.. Hamilton Gibson, with commenda-
BILE industry, has given us the range of
many Of our American. seeds. Pr1f. Won
Marilaun presents rate of some of the
distances S eds are propelled. One or two
yards you might think would be along
range, but the bean-shaped seeds of Acan-
thus nlollis are propelled 10 fall yards
those of the Hura crepitans Is 1-3 yards
and the lenticular seeds of the Bauh
purpurea have an extreme range Of is ~
yards
There AFRO certain seed pods which re-
all Iatic. If an animal or bird touch
es them, then off they go, and it looks as
ii the seeds wanted to lodge in the coat of
an animal, SO as to be carried further on.
This power the fruit of plants have of
movement, is curiously shown in the
seeds of some grasses. They are covered
with tiny bristles which are sensitive to
the least moisture. The spines Will be-
come the least hard and stiff in dry
weather and limp when it rains. This
gives the ses ds locomotive power, and they
creep. Some seeds actually hop off the
ground by sudden expulsion within
them selves.
There are many "Rnses of Jerlco''
which are not roses. When the Crusaders
returned to Europe. or the pilgrims from
the holy places, they brought with them
their Ncurios, and so Crosses Of Jerico' had
many marvellous attributes allotted to
them. Perhaps the plant called by an
awfully long name-the Anastatica
hierochuntIca-a crucifier which grows on
the steppe lands of Egypt, Arabia, and
Syria, is the true Rose of Jerico. When
the flowers are ripe, they are kept in q
cage, as it WERE The structure looks in