The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-12

Sized TRAVELLERS.

Seeds are the children of the plants,
and perhaps no children receive more
careful attention. While they are i'm
mature and delicate. they are nourish-
ed and protected from their enemies
by thousand ingenious devices, and
when, at last, they are ready to leave
their parents, they are given every
chance for a successful start in the
world And all this is absolutely neces-
sary, if a plant would save its race
from determination, for so fierce is the
struggle for existence, that. even as it
is, only one seed in many thousands
lives to obtain permanent foothold
in the soil Of the untold millions
which annually fall to the earth near
ly all perish from one cause or an
other. Tons Of them are destroyed
every fall and winter by birds, many
of which live almost exclusively on
seeds during these seasons: others are
destroyed by insects, mice and SPUR
rels, and vast numbers never germin-
ate, simply, because they fall amongst
rocks sand and other inhospitable sur
roundings Even of those which sprout
and actually start to grow, very few,
are able to maintain their footing, the
majority being starved out or crowded
out by stronger and more vigorous
competitors Those which succeed, do
so in the face of fearful odds. and
every wild flower we see blooming in
the woods or along the roadside, is
hero in it's way,
The chances Of success are so slight
H. - 1,o1 t,,cr a
of her offspring survive, each plant
sends forth a great many more seeds
than would otherwise be necessary
But numbers alone will not avail; they
must be sent abroad in as many differ
ent directions as possible, that some of
them at least may fall where conditions
are favorable for a successful struggle,
To get their seeds distributed then, is
problem which nearly all plants have
to contend with, and many of them
have most interesting and ingenious
ways of solving 1t. Some flowers, like
the spotted touch me-not, take matters
in their own hands, so to speak, and
fling their seeds from them as soon as
they are ripe. In this case the seeds
are contained in cylindrical pods, which
upon the slightest touch, split down the
side and curl up with great force, scat
tering the seeds in every direction. The
garden balsam, too, uses this means Of
distributing her Seeds though she no
longer needs it, as the gardener attends
to that part of the work for her. The
common witch hazel also expels its
seeds violently when they are thor
oughly ripe.
The majority of plants, however, do
not undertake the work of distribution
alone, but rely largely on agents to do
it for them One of the most powerful
agents is the wind, and many seeds
have become peculiarly adapted to re-
ceive its assistance. An excellent ex-
ample is he seed of the common milk
weed, which is attached to a tuft Of
light silky hairs beneath which 1t floats
away on the breeze like the car of a
miniature balloon. In similar way the
seeds of the dandelion are carried
north south, east or west, according to
the direction of the wind, and when the
little goldfnch feeds upon the thistle
tops he does his part toward distribut-
ing the emblem of Scotland. Only a. few
DAVIS ego saw 2 cloud Of downy seeds
floating away from patch of tall wild
lettuce. and every spiders web within
q quarter of a mile was laden with the
f1uttering silken tufts. The seeds of the
maple. ash BIRCH elm, pine, trumpet
creeper and others have attached to
them light, papery wings, and when
the wind catches them they fly away,
twisting, scaling and futtering through
the air for a considerable distance be-
fore they reach the ground.
Many plants, particularly some Of
those which grow along the borders Of
streams, use the water as seed-d dis
tributor. The ripened seed falls and is
carried down by the current until
miles below, perhaps, it is washed up