Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-14
HOW PLANTS "TRAvEL.v
Devices by Which the Wind May
Loosen Seeds.
From the London Globe.

From the London Globe.
1 have Just gathered a handful of the
ripe seeds of the goats beard growing by
the roadside And very curious and beau
tiful objects they are Each rugged seed
Is surmounted by little stalk, at the top
of which is a series of radiating ribs
woven together by a soft felt. The whole
may be compared to little fat umbrella,
and It enables the seed to sail through
the air like a balloon Had these seeds
not been gathered a gust of wind would
have Ioosened and carried them away.
See. let one go and 1t floats off lightly
in the breeze! 1t may be carried far, and
the young plant of goats beard may grow
up many miles from the parent stock. So
the plant travels over the globe planting
fresh colonies in distant parts. The dan
delion, which in childhood we were wont
to consult to what O'Clock 1t was, sends
out its progeny in similar way. So do
hawkweeds hawbts. thistles and a host
of others And after the havoc wrought
on the plant life of this country by the
great ice age, the seeds of these, plants
may have been waited over from the con-
tinent on the wings of the wind. So the
country was restocked when warmer con-
ditions returned.
Standing beside these furze bushes, with
their ripe-brown pods, we hear series
of cracks 1t Is the whin's announcement
that II is scattering its seeds The heat OF
the sun contracts the outside of the pods,
and when the tension becomes great they
burst open and shoot out the seeds a few
feet from the parent plant Broom and a
great many other pod-bearing plants scat
ter their seeds in a similar way Here.
again, are some ripened heads of the
meadow cranes BILL In order to get its
seeds away from under Its own shadow
this plant has adopted the principle of the
sling. You can illustrate it as follows:
Take a stone In each hand, and hold the
hands down close to the body Then sud-
denly throw them outward, and at the
same time let go the stones. They fly out
to some distance on either side. Now
above. and each holding little stone be-
low. This is the seed-sca Iterine arrange
ment in the meadow cranes bill. As the
seed head turns brown and ripens the con-
traction of the outer layers of the arms
produces state of tension and tendency
to curl outward. The attachments at the
base loosen, and the arms suddenly curl
outward, throwing out the seeds. Touch
ing this nearly ripened head the five arms
spring out and throw away the five seeds
white flowers of the water crowfoot In
spring, but you have perhaps never won
dered how the seeds reached suitable
place for terminating. They require to
be set in the mud at the bottom OF the
pond. and the flowers which produce the
seeds are at the surface. There they re-
ceive the necessary sunshine and per-
haps the visits OF the fertllixing insects.
But as the seeds develop the heads turn
downward. and finally reach the bottom
mud A similar device occurs In. that
pretty little flower. the ivy-Ieaved Snap
dragon which so often adorns the walls
OF old gardens The Sewers are on the
It's Of the industrious bee Al the seed
ripena however. the stalks turn Hround