22 Seed-dispersing Apparatus of Er odium moschatum. 



Art. VI. On the seed-dispersing Apparatus of the musk-scented 

 Herons Bill (Erbdium moschatum W.). By Robert Mallet, 

 Esq. 



Having some plants of the Erodium moschatum in culti- 

 vation, I have been struck with admiration in observing the 

 arrangements for the dispersion of the seeds ; and, having 

 looked into many books, and not found any particular notice 

 of this, I am induced to send a description of it, for the 

 benefit of those who admire the innumerable and beautiful 

 contrivances of the Almighty Architect. 



Each seed (of which there are five to each flower) is enclosed 

 in a capsule [car- 

 pel] {figs. 3, 4, 5.), at- 

 tached by its upper ex- 

 tremity to a tail, or awn, 

 which possesses the 

 most wonderful hygro- 

 metricsensibility;as,in- 

 deed, does every other 

 partof the plant. These 

 five awns lie in grooves 

 in the receptacle of the 

 flower [and this recep- 

 tacle is central to, and is the axis of, all parts of the flower and 

 fruit] (as in pelargoniums, geraniums, &c); and a magnified 

 section of it is shown in fig. 6. ; and, also, a section of one of 

 the awns as it lies in the groove. Fig. 8., shows the general 

 appearance of the calyx and receptacle 

 clothed with the seeds. When the whole 

 system has arrived at a certain point 

 of aridity, the awns, which are pro- 

 vided with an exquisite power of tor- 

 sion, twist themselves out from their 



grooves {fig. 



9.), and, at the same 



moment, a number of downy filaments, 

 hidden at the back, or inward face, 

 of the awns, bristle forth: they all to- 

 gether become, now, detached, and fall to the ground, as in 



But here they still continue to twist; and, from the position in 

 which they always lie, keep tumbling over and over, and thus 

 receding from the parent plant, until they have twisted them- 

 selves into the form offig.l 1., in which they are perfect balloons, 

 ready to be wafted away by every zephyr. The awn attached 

 to each capsule [carpel] assumes, in the progress of twisting, 

 the sections a, b, c, {fig. 7.) as viewed microscopically. But 



