134 THE ROMANCE OF SEED-SOWING. 



Among winged fruits we Iiave the keys, or doubly-winged 

 fruits of Sycamore and Maple, the single one of Ash, and 

 the well-known winged nuts (so called) of Birch and Elm, 

 those of the latter covering the roads in April and early May. 

 When the winged fruit is detached from the tree, it falls slowly 

 with a rotatory motion, and the wind, if enough be present, is 

 sure to catch it and bear it away. Lime has no winged fruit, 

 but the long, narrow bract at the base of the bunch of fruits serves 

 the purpose. Watch a bunch of Lime-fruit falling, and note that 

 the fruits hang lowermost, the bract catching the wind and carry- 

 ing the whole mass away — very often to some distance. Among 

 plants also, we find instances of winged fruits, as in Dock, 

 Parsnip, and Penny Cress, the latter being, like others of its Order, 

 a winged pod, or pouch, containing the seeds. 



In the case of Pine, it is the seed which is winged — i.e., it 

 carries with it a portion of the scale to which it was 

 formerly attached. So, if you examine the tiny seeds of Arbor 

 viicB and Cypress in our gardens, you will find these to be 

 surrounded by a thin membranous wing ; equally provided are 

 those of the beautiful Trumpet-creeper, while the seeds of some 

 Bignonias are so delicately winged that you can watch them 

 describing a series of circles in the air, hovering, so to speak, 

 before they finally settle. 



There is one instance of a wind-wafted fruit which, although 

 not winged, I may name here. I refer to the ' Rose of Jericho,' 

 a pod-bearing annual found in Syria and Egypt. Its pods, when 

 dry, curl themselves up into a ball, and are driven, it may be, for 

 miles along the ground by the wind, until they happen on a damp 

 place ; there they stick, uncurl, open, and deposit their seeds. 

 There is another case : a kind of Grass, in which the whole inflo- 

 rescence, in the shape of a large round head, gets driven along the 

 sands of Australia, until it finds some moist spot where the 

 plant can again take root and let fall its seeds. 



Still more complicated and beautiful than the wings already 

 seen are the tufts of down seen on many fruits and seeds, and 

 they serve a similar purpose. This down, which forms Dandelion 

 'clocks' and Thistle 'blows,' consists either of simple hairs, or 

 those provided with a feathery arrangement, It may be found 



