XXI 



FIELD AND WAYSIDE IN AUTUMN 



From the end of September onward the number of wdld flowers is 

 rapidly decreasing, but still there is much to be seen that -will be 

 interesting to the observant student of Nature. Many of the 

 summer flowers are quite over, wliile others continue to bloom till, 

 at last, they succumb to the intensifying frosts ; but hundreds of 

 species of the summer-flowering plants are now in fruit, and some of 

 these are almost as interesting in this stage as when in flower. Many 

 plants will have been observed in flower before any of their fruits 

 were fully formed, but autumn is the season when a large number 

 of these may be seen in full fruit, and watched as they make arrange- 

 ments for the dispersal of their seeds. 



We have already given (p. 12) an outline classification of 

 the various kinds of fruits, and if the reader will study this during 

 the autumn months, and examine the field and woodland plants 

 that fall in his way, he will find abundance of work awaiting him 

 on every country ramble. 



A large number of wind-dispersed fruits and seeds are ripe long 

 before the autumn sets in, and have already been distributed by 

 the summer breezes ; but now, with fewer flowers to attract atten- 

 tion, one can give more time to the observations of the movements of 

 tufted and mnged seeds and fruits as they sail through the air. And, 

 as we brush by the hedgerows and the borders of fields in search of 

 various flowers and fruits, we soon become acquainted with a 

 variety of bristled, hooked, and barbed fruits that are efi'ectually 

 dispersed by the agencj^ of animals, quite a large number of these 

 having securely fastened themselves to om- clothing. 



Many fruits remain attached to their plants long after the last 

 flowers, and even the leaves, have entkely disappeared. Some 



