Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-03-02
Rowing Seeds.

Did you ever watch the seeds fall
from the sugar maple, or the silver ma
ple-trees often planted in the streets
Of our cities? The fruit is two-seeded,
each seed being provided with a fiat
tened projection or wing which spreads
out like a fan. The pair are joined,
the wings approaching right angle
with each other. When the fall from
the tree you may see these wings re
volve like the blades of the screw of a
steamship, and they pillow their way
through the ocean of air, often for long
distances, until they reach the earth.
Opposite my door is q magnificent
white ash, and on September days I
While away a few moments observing
the fruit leave the tree. The seeds.
while hanging in what we called in our
childhood .'bunches of keys" are sin
gle, but, like those of the maple, form
q samara. that is, they have a wing
like appendage. In this instance the
wing encloses the seed at one end and
is then prolonged like the blade of an
oar; AS soon as it leaves the "bunch
OF keys" the wing reyolves in the cur
rent OF air, reminding of the action of
an oar in sculling. In this way, by au-
tomato sculling, many a seed is carried
Tar beyond the area ruled over by the
parent ash tree, and the young plants.
when they start into active life, will not
ROD their prOgenltOr of it's nOuriShment
Inc elm has a similar provision, only in
It's case the wing extends equally on all
sides of the seed, and when set free to
seek its fortune the adventurer f1icks up
and down, on this side and on that,
III the oldest maynard fashion. until if
finds resting place
Of the many pleasures which await the
observing eye, the methods of transport
ing seeds are by no means the least inter-
estlng. The poppy is provided with a
sort of pepper dredger, the holes Of
which are just under the cap. AS the
wind rattles the dry stalk, or some ami
mai pushes against it, the small black
grains are thrown broadcast around The
violet with it's three-valved pod dries up
inside out as it were, thus scattering its
seeds with force enough to throw them
to some distance. In the south of Eu-
rope grows the squirting cucumber from
which we get the drug elaterium BY
the action OF the juice on the tissue of
the chamber containing the seeds a
strong pressure is set up, and often the
slightest touch will cause an explosion,
like that of q sodawater bottle, and
the seeds are elected as canister shot was
of old, often falling at a distance of
twenty feet.
Another plant acts more leisurely. In
stead of flying, or clinging to some ami
NAL, or being shot out from its parent,
it deliberately sets itself to walk to its
future home 1t is an ally of the mistle-
toe and has a yiscid berry. Wherever
the seed falls it adheres and there ger
inmates. When the radiole has become
about an inch long it developes a fiat
tened disk at its extremity, and then
curves about until the disk touches some
neighboring surface. Should it find the
locality suitable one, it proceeds at
once to grow. If not, it lifts itself up,
tears the viscid berry from it's hold,
twists itself in new direction, depos-
its the berry again, lifts up the disk, and
tries a new spot, repeating the process
until it's wants are satisfied. This
strange plant is an arceuthobium and is
parasite on jumpers. A relative of it,
characteristic on beech trees, is provid-
ed with four long fattened appendages
by which it anchors itself to the branches
until it's sucking disk has good hold.
There is no need to dwell on the arti-
fee of concealing seeds in a tempting and
succuent fruit, but the morality of as
Stunning a disguise may be questioned,
Yet such is the plan of Scorpiurus,
which has seeds so like caterpillar or
a centipede that a bird may be forgiven
for being deceived into swallowing one
in expectation of dainty morsel.-New
York Post