49 
be easily mistaken for the fingers of a soiled buckskin mitten, 
were placed upon a radiator to dry while others were deposited 
upon a table near by. Some were hung in my son’s sleeping 
room to note the effect upon a young person unversed in the 
methods of plant dissemination. Upon the third day the pods 
upon the laboratory radiator began their bombardment. The first 
shot provoked surprised in a person in a adjoining room, the 
report being in volume not unlike that made by a Fourth of July 
toy pistol. In a few minutes the first shot was followed by a 
second and the pieces of the horny pod were seen to rise for sev- 
eral inches, while the large seeds hit the high ceiling with consid- 
erable force. A third pod was taken to the middle of the room and 
watched for an explosion. Within five minutes the efforts were 
rewarded by first a low snap, followed quickly by a high somer- 
sault of the pod and the expulsion of the seeds to a vertical and 
lateral distance of ten feet. Of the four seeds only two were 
recovered, the others being lost among papers and books not far 
away. In another instance the seed was flung from a pod with 
such force as to strike the window, producing a sharp sound as if 
asmall stone had been thrown against the pane. If the window 
had been open the seed would have reached the side of a neigh- 
boring building fifteen feet away. ‘ 
It is an easy matter to cause the dry Wistaria pods to explode 
by holding by the stem end and bringing them down witha sharp 
‘ap upon one of the two edges. The pods open uniformly by the 
ventral suture, and if the pod is struck by this edge the seeds do | 
not fly out so readily, but by reversing the edges they are flung _ 
upward, and may rise to the height of many feet. ee, 
One of the pods “ popped” in my boy’s room just as the lad 
was awaking in the morning, and drew from him the remark that 
he was “scared awful.” He also said that “if those things were 
made to hold seeds they were not of much use.” 
These statements are repeated here to enforce the fact that the 
noise made by the Wistaria seed-pods may be positively alarming 
in the quiet of the early dawn to an unsuspecting child. Older 
Persons, still earlier in the morning, might experience a surprise as 
Should one of these spring traps fly open with its attendant mae cae 
Cracking sound. — Nee ee Vee gd: 
