^be IRomancc of 6ccb^Sowinci» 



By H. W. S. Worsley-Benison, F.L.S. 



VERY country child knows the appearance of a 

 ' Dandelion-clock,' and has tried to " see what 

 o'clock it is " by the number of puffs needed to 

 blow away the round head of soft down at the 

 top of the flower-stalk in Autumn. Equally 

 <,^^)5^V familiar is the smaller tuft of grey down on 

 -^/A "5;^ Groundsel after flowering, although most people 

 T yK* y do not know that the botanical name of Ground- 

 sel is Se?iecio, from the Latin se?iex, ' an old man,' 

 given to it on account of the colour of this down. Most of 

 us can recollect the innumerable tufts of similar material 

 flying all over a thistle-field long after Butterfly and Bee have 

 done their work among the purple flowers. We have all seen 

 Sycamore ' keys ' strewing the ground in June and July, and 

 brown Ash ' keys ' persistent on the parent tree when October 

 winds have blown nearly every leaf from its hold. The bonnie 

 Autumn berries in our woods, and the fruits of Blackberry and 

 Strawberry have been gathered by children of younger and older 

 growth many a time and oft. 



How many of us ever stay to inquire w/iy Groundsel and 

 Thistle possess their downy tufts, 7vhy Ash and Sycamore produce 

 their ' keys,' or 7c>hy many of the trees and plants are dressed in 

 fruiting time with crimson and scarlet, purple and olive? Not 

 only in order to the uses we make of them, we may be quite 

 sure. ' Dandelion-globes ' and ' Thistledown blows ' do not 

 exist only to tell the time of day to a four-year-old child, or " he 

 loves me — he loves me not " to the maiden of seventeen. Ash 

 and Sycamore have ' keys ' for some other purpose than to form 

 graceful, drooping clusters in June. The fruits and berries are 

 not solely for decoration and digestion by human gatherers. 



Were these their only reasons for existence, that would soon 

 terminate, in all probability. All these and many others that we 

 could name gladden and delight us in various ways, as do the 



New Series. Vol. I. K 



1888. 



