THE OUTDOOR WORLD 



205 



Astonishing Performances of Plants. 



BY HERBERT W. FAULKNER, WASHINGTON, 

 CONNECTICUT. 



The splendid poinsettia seems as if 

 it had been created specially to add 

 lustre to our Christmas decorations, 

 and to enliven with its gforsfeous color- 



STAIVIEN 



THE POINSETTIA. 



ing the festivities of yuletide. We think 

 of it as a flower of brilliant scarlet, but 

 are surprised when we discover that 

 the true flowers are little, button-like 

 aflfairs in the midst of a huge crown of 

 scarlet leaves. Another surprise awaits 

 us when we examine these inconspic- 

 uous flowers, one of which, greatly en- 

 larged, is shown on the lower right- 

 hand side of our sketch. Here a tulip 

 shaped calyx is seen, surrounding a 

 group of odd and irregular stamens 

 and, at its side, a large nectary, shaped 



like a French roll and full of a sweet, 

 adhesive fluid. With the point of a 

 pin, touch one of the brittle stamens, 

 and see it jump off and fly away in a 

 mad somersault. Try it several times 

 and you will see some of the stamens 

 fall, by chance, into the gummy nectary 

 and there stick fast. What is the mean- 

 ing of these odd pranks and acrobatics? 

 They mean that the flower is arranged 

 for cross-fertilization. Let an insect 

 come to drink of the nectar, and the 

 chances are that he will carry away the 

 pollen or perhaps an entire stamen, and 

 with it brush against the pistil of the 

 next flower that he visits. 



The Poinsettia is a foreigner, from 

 some distant and warmer clime, and we 

 do not know what particular insect it 

 strives to attract and please, but its 

 fragile stamens and their lively ways 

 are entertaining. 



In the states of our Middle West 

 grows a plant called the Amaranthus 

 graecizans or tumbleweed. All the 

 spring and summer it seems to be a 

 commonplace weed, with nothing pe- 

 culiar to distinguish it or to make it 

 interesting. But when the autumn 

 comes, its drying branches curl inward, 

 till the plant forms a spherical tangle, 

 then the stalk breaks loose from the 

 root, and its wanderings begin. Over 

 the meadows and prairies it rolls, the 

 sport of every breeze, but not alone. 

 Hundreds of other weeds of its kind 

 are rolling with it. So they go, charg- 

 ing in mass formation, retreating, 

 charging again. Then the whole bat- 

 talion takes refuge under a fence and 

 awaits marching orders from the wind. 

 At length, one weed leaps the obstruc- 

 tion, others follow, and all go leaping 

 and bounding, helter-skelter, wherever 

 the wind wills. These antics seem 

 merely comical till we discover that 

 this is the way in which the tumble- 

 weed sows its seed. If we examine the 



