136 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



not spread downstream. Here were 

 plants making hug^e numbers of seeds, and 

 •seedlings enough to choke the pond, yet 



RICE "PINS' 



STICKING THROUGH THE LILY 

 PADS. 



none of the seeds got downstream to 

 flourish elsewhere. 



One day in the autumn I noticed a lily 

 pad stuck full of little black spikes like 

 a pincushion with black pins. I stooped 

 to examine them and in so doing jostled 

 a tall stalk of the wild rice and straight- 

 way brought down a shower of little 

 pointed seeds, some of which stuck in the 

 lily pad while the majority plunged into 

 the water. The seeds had a sharp point 

 for plunging and a long tail like the 

 stick of a rocket to direct them straight 

 downward. So the mystery was explain- 

 ed, for I remembered that the seeds of 

 wild rice must be kept moist in order to 

 grow. If they dry, they die. Nature 

 intends that every seed shall fall straight 

 into the water and plunge to the bottom ; 

 not float downstream, iget cast ashore and 

 mavbe die of thirst. 



The management of the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New 

 York City is planning to raise by private 

 subscription the sum of seven hundred 

 and fifty thousand dollars to build a new 

 wing toward the southeast. No addi- 

 tional space has been provided since the 

 building of the southwest wing in 1905, 

 and the collection has become seriously 

 overcrowded. 



factories. These seeds travelled by 

 steamer and rail. 



Alany plants actually shoot out their 

 seeds by ing^enious spring mechanisms. 

 Some of the bean family are famous 

 shooters. The lupine forms a stiff hard 

 seed pod which on ripening, and drying 

 to just the right point, suddenly bursts 

 and curls into two spiral horns with such 

 suddenness that the seeds are shot out 

 in every direction. The lupine pods, both 

 closed and open, are shown in our third 

 sketch. 



Next we see the seed of the jewel weed, 

 appropriately called the touch-me-not. 

 The pod resembles a small bean but at the 

 slightest touch this springs into a new 

 shape and so quickly that our eyes do not 

 tell us what has happened, though our 

 ears detect the scattering and fall of the 

 seeds. These are enclosed in a pod with 

 a central axis like a green ribbon. The 

 pod divides at the top into narrow strips 

 that curl downward and inward like a 

 watch spring, squeezing the seeds in their 

 spiral folds and shooting them right and 

 left. 



The seeds of many plants are scattered 

 by water. A'^ast numbers float down our 

 streams and lodge along the shores. 

 Others are washed from the summits and 

 slopes of hills to take root in the valleys. 



Lupin. 



CATAPULTS. 



Jewelweed. 



I was for some time mystified by the ac- 

 tion of the wild rice which I planted on 

 the shore of my little pond, because it did 



