The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-23

From Pearson's Magazine.

Overcrowding is an evil which is
dreaded by plants as much as by any
other organism endowed with life. So
it is that when the time comes for the
seeds of a plant or tree to start life on
their own account, they are seldom al
lowed to remain in too close proximity
to their parent; but each is furnished
with some means of transport to carry
it far away in search of a new home.
And as we have long ago found out
for ourselves in dealing with the wind,
wings and parachutes are two of the
chief methods of utilizing 1t as trans
port. 1t is true we have not been par
ticularly successful with either our
selves, but the plants have been clever
er than we, and was found that prop
erly manipulated, these flying appli-
ances give every satisfaction, though
this happy result has not been attain
ed without very skillful contrivance.
Look, for instance, at that most beau
tiful parachute belonging to the rather
ugly weed, John 60 to- bed at noon, or
tragopogon. 1t is indeed, a most per-
feet piece of workmanship. The yellow
seed containing the young plant forms
the handle and gives the necessary
weight; a slender stem carries the eX-
banded top. The ribs are of the finest,
radiating from the center, and the
ualnJ1eSt CODW6D CONSIllS MlIlho III etiAh
out between them.
The .parachutes sway on high in the
breeze, carried hither and thither by
the lightest breath, and then at the
first dead calm they fall like darts to
the earth. The upper part becomes
easily detached and the seed lies where
it has fallen for good or evil.
These fairy parachutes, to whose
beauty no picture can do justice, have
tops about an inch across, and are
originally all folded up as neatly as
a parasol might be, and attached by
the seed-end to the head of the flower
stalk. Then there comes a dry day,
with warm sunshine, and the para
chutes fly open altogether to form a
head as big, maybe, as small orange;
then comes a puff, and away they fly
in all directions carrying the little seed
far out of sight on its voyage OF dis
covery.
The thistle shows a variation. The
hairs are long, the stem suppressed
and the seed is parachutlst, whose
hold on it's parachute is of the llghtest'
Indeed, as the down is borne along on
the wind. the mere fact of it's striking
an obstacle is sufficient to loosen this
gentle clasp, and then, while the feath-
cry hairs still go floating on, the seed
falls straight to the ground, there to
lie where chance has thrown it.
Some plants inclose their seed para
chutes inside a pod with a tough skin,
the better to shield them from ad-
verse infiuenceS. and that. they may
not be hustled into beginning their
Journey prematurely. Here the seeds,
each furnished with a crown of long
silken hairs, are packed carefully away
in a strong, hard pod. The pod falls
from the plant and is, perhaps, carried
far away; but it is not until a suitable
season, when the conditions are favor
able for the travellers within, that the
box flies open. Then the seeds with
their silken crowns are free to go
where they will, the wind blows, they
rise from their warm bed and fly away
to find new homes.
Before turning from the parachptists
to the seeds that travel by means OF
wings, one plant-a species of clematls
that provides it's offspring with a
curious screw-like apparatus, is worthy
of mention. The seed, when turned
adrift, moves with a twisting move
ment-in the same way as a screw
moves when being driven into a piece
of wood.
OF plants with winged seeds, the
tropical Mezoneurum plerygospherma
is perhaps the most remarkable. The
seed case consists of a long, thin, tri-
angular pod, divided within into
dozen or more three-sided cupboards.
Each of these contains a neatly packed
seed provided with three wings, which
fit so closely into the three corners that
there is not particle of waste space.