FRUITS AND COLONISATION BY SEED. 45 



sorts. It is probable that mud sticking to birds in 

 this way often contains seeds. Darwin found in 

 6^ oz. of mud no less than 537 seeds, and Ludwig 

 and other recent observers have drawn up catalogues of 

 the seeds to be found in the mud carried in earth, 

 taken from the plumage and legs of wading birds. 



Many foreign plants show the most extraordinary 

 adaptations to this end, e.g. Lappago [Tragoceros), 

 several species of Trifolium, Harpagophytum, Martynia, etc. 

 The capsules of Triglochin should also be examined. 



Wind distribution by hairs is exceedingly common 

 in Britain. Every one is familiar with the exquisite 

 crown of feathery hairs which surmounts the fruit of 

 the Dandelion. Almost all Compositae have a somewhat 

 similar circle of simple or feathery hairs, probably the 

 remains of what were once sepals, on their fruits. 

 The wind catches these crowns and carries them some- 

 times a very great distance. In winter time especially, 

 when the ground is covered by a film of ice, they may 

 be carried a very long way. Wheat grains have been 

 found to travel 165 feet in one minute on frozen 

 ground under the action of a wind blowing at the rate 

 of 25 miles an hour. Hairs used for the transport of 

 seeds by the wind are found in a great many other 

 plants besides Compositae. A few of these are men- 

 tioned to show that the hairs may be developed from 

 very different parts of the flower. The Cotton grass, 

 which is really one of the Sedges, Cyperaceae., has a 

 quantity of long silky hairs produced from both sepals 

 and petals ; the little hard fruit is seated upon and 

 amongst these hairs. In the Travellers' Joy {Clematis), 

 some Anemones, and the little Alpine Dryas {Rosaceae), 

 the carpels terminate in a long and elegant silky tail, 

 which is covered all over by hairs, and thus catches the 



