Handbook of Nature-Study 



child as this house in which the milkweed carries its seeds. When we 

 look at a green pod, we first admire its beautiful shape; on either side 

 of the seam, which will sometime open, are three or four rows of 

 projecting points rising from the felty surface of the pod in a way 

 that suggests embossed embroidery. We open the pod by pulling 

 it apart along the seam; and this is not a seam with a raw edge but is 

 finished with a most perfect selvage. When we were children we were 

 wont to dispossess these large green pods of their natural contents, and 

 because they snapped shut so easily, we imprisoned therein bumblebees 

 "to hear them sing," but we always let them go again. We now know 

 that there is nothing so interesting as to study the contents of the pod 

 just as it is. Below the opening is a line of white velvet ; at one end, and 

 with their "heads all in one direction," are the beautiful, pale-rimmed, 

 brown, overlapping seeds; and at the other end we see the exquisite 

 milkweed silk with the skein so polished that no human reel could give us 

 a skein of such luster. If we remove the contents of the pod as a whole, 

 we see that the velvety portion is really the seed-support and that it joins 

 the pod at either end. It is like a hammock full of babies, except that the 

 milkweed babies are fastened on the outside of the hammock. 



No sooner is our treasure open to the air than the shining silk begins to 

 separate into floss of fairy texture. But before one seed comes off, let us 

 look at the beautiful pattern formed by the seeds overlapping such pat- 

 terns we may see in the mosaics of mosques. 



Pull off a seed, and with it comes its own skein of floss, shining like a 

 pearl; but if we hold the seed in the hand a moment the skein unwinds 

 itself into a fluff of shining threads as fine as spiders' silk, and each 

 individual thread thrusts itself out and rests upon the air; and altogether 

 there are enough of the threads to float the seed, a balloon of the safest 

 sort. If we wreck the balloon by rubbing the floss through our fingers, 

 we shall feel the very softest textile fiber spun by Mother Nature. 



If we look closely at our seed we see a margin all around it. Well, 

 what if the balloon should be driven over sea, and the seed dropped upon 

 the water? It must then drown unless it has a life preserver; this margin 

 that we have noted is of the safest cork, and is warranted to float ; if you 

 do not believe it, try it. 



If we pull off all the seeds, we can see that the velvety support is flat 

 and that all of the seeds are attached to it, but before we stop our admir- 

 ing study we should look carefully again at the inside of the pod, for never 

 was there a seed cradle with a lining more soft and satiny. 



LESSON CXXXI 

 THE MILKWEED 



Leading thought The milkweed when wounded secretes a milky juice 

 which is of a rubberlike composition; it flows out of the wounded plant 

 and soon hardens, thus protecting the wound from germs. Milkweed 

 flowers depend entirely upon insects for pollenation ; the pollen is not a 

 free, yellow powder, but it is contained in paired sacs, which are joined 

 in V-shape. The seeds are carried by balloons, and they can float on 

 water as well. 



Method Begin the study of the plant when it first appears above 

 ground in April or May. Give the pupils the questions about the blossom 



