PARACHUTES AND KITES 



the end of summer or beginning of autumn. If either the 

 Cow Parsnip or wild Angelica, or Myrrhis, be gathered and 

 kept till it is quite dry, then if you take it by the stalk and 

 swing it to the full extent of the arms the fruits fly off to 

 fifteen (or more) feet away. Every part is elastic — ^not 

 only the main stalk, but the thin separate stalks of the 

 flowers and also the delicate piece by which each half- 

 fruit is attached. The half-fruits themselves are also so 

 made that they are of exactly the right shape to take a 

 long flight. 



Ever since the days of Icarus, one of the unsatisfied ambi- 

 tions of mankind has been to fly like a bird, to " soar into 

 the empyrean," and to be no longer chained to the earth's 

 surface. 



It is a very curious study, that of the many and diverse 

 inventions, almost always useless and very often fatal, by 

 which men have endeavoured to solve this problem. Every 

 one of these can be paralleled amongst the many neat con- 

 trivances of wind-borne fruits and seeds. The principle of 

 the "parachute," which is more or less like an umbrella, is 

 found in both fruits and seeds. One of the most beautiful 

 is the Dandelion fruit, where a series of the most exquisite 

 branched hairs springs from the top of the slender shaft 

 which carries the little hard fruit. Most of the Composite 

 or Dandelion order have, however, more of the "shuttle- 

 cock " idea. There is a row or crown of stiff* and spreading 

 or feathery hairs. 



The classical person above alluded to seems to have 

 copied the bird's wing, sticking on feathers with wax, which 

 of course melted in the sun with the usual result to the 

 inventor of flying machines. Many seeds have regular 

 wings which act like those of the bat or flying squirrel. One 



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