The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-10-14
How Plants Prepare for Winter

stand the cold, drying winds Of
winter. III
When frost comes in the fall,
many flowers, weeds and garden
plants are killed One might think
that they do not get ready for win
ter. But they come up again in the
spring, SO they must have some
way of living through the winter.
How do they do this?
The next time you eat peanuts.
examine one carefully. After you
pull off the brown, papery cover
ing, see il you can divide the pea
nut into two parts. Each part is q
big, fat leaf, full of food for the new
plant that is to grow from the seed.
Now look carefully and you Will
find, fastened to one of the thick
leaves tiny root and shoot, which
would have grown into a new plant
If the seed had been planted instead
of being roasted.
Every seed is a little sleeping
plant, covered with shell to pro-
tect 1t. 1t sleeps all winter and
when 1t feels the warmth of spring
1t awakens and grows into a new
plant like its parents. So God has
provided for all plants a way by
which they may live thru the cold,
stormy winter and bloom for US in
the spring.
Now 1t seems as tho every plant
were trying to cover the whole
world with plants of its own kind.
Some kinds of trees make thous-
ands of seeds every year. These it
scatters into every nook and cor
ner, in the hope that some OF them
will grow into new trees. It is very
interesting to see what wonderful
ways plants have of scattering
their seeds. 1t would be interest
ing for you to find as many of these
as you can.
Some, like the dandelion and tho
milkweed, have fine, silky para
chutes. Some seeds have wings
which make them whirl round and
round as they fall. Find how the
wings are arranged in the ash
trees; III the naples; in the linden.
What other trees have winged
seeds?
Walnuts and hickory-nuts, have
such heavy seeds that parachutes
or wings would not carry thin, SO
squirrels carry them away. The
squirrels are paid for carrying them
by eating the most of them, but
they lose some OF them and hide
some away in the ground and forget
to come and get them, so some of
the nuts always grow into trees.
There is wild cucumber which
grows in Whitewater Gorge which
has it's seeds inside a fruit like a
small garden cucumber. except that
it is prickly. AS the cucumber
grows, it becomes fuller and fuller
of water until it suddenly bursts at
the end and shoots out the seeds as
If from squirtgun.
Then there Is the wild touch-me-
not, or jewel-weed, the pods of
which burst open like a small fire.
cracker if you touch them, scatter
ing it's seeds far and wide.
Cocoanut trees live by the sea-
shore. Their seeds have~su a
heavy shell that they may float
thousands of miles and grow upon
the shores Of some distant island.
Some plants have fruits with lit
tie stone-like seeds. Birds eat them
in order to get the pulp for food,
but do not digest the hard seed
The arctic hern flies every fall
from the far north nearly to the
south pole. 1t may carry some of
the northern seeds thousands OF
miles before dropping them, Per-
haps this is the reason why the
plants of the two polar regions are
SO much alike.
/ am sure your teacher would like
for you to bring to school speci-
mems showing the different ways
plants have of scattering their
seeds. These could be put into
small boxes or bottles and would
make an interesting collection.