DISPERSAL OF SEEDS. 150 
overcomes the strength of the attachment of the seed to the bottom 
of the valve when they fly out to a distance of several feet. No doubt 
the shape of the seed and its smoothness facilitate this action very 
much. I have seen them thrown across a room ten feet or more. 
After the seeds have been ejected the valves close up, the edges 
almost touching each other. 
The Sweet Violet (Vrora oporata) has quite another plan of 
disposing of its seeds. Instead of shooting them as far away as 
possible it sheds them on the ground quite close to the parent plant. 
When the flower fades the stalk bends over, pushing the capsule 
among the leaves, and as it ripens, the stalk elongates, pushing as 
close to the ground as possible. Here it opens into three valves and 
allows the seeds to escape. 
In addition to the pretty sweet-scented Violets, familiar to every 
one, it has another kind of flower, in which the corolla is absent or 
imperfect, is small and contains a small quantity of pollen. It 
looks like an ordinary flower bud, when older like the ordinary 
capsule, so that the bud seems to pass to capsule without passing 
through the flowering stage. They are produced in Autumn, and 
can be found close to the ground among the leaves, sometimes the 
plant actually pushes them into the ground. This seems to be 
possible only if the ground is loose and uneven. 
The Wood Sorrel (Oxatis AcETosELLA) has the flower nearly 
erect and well above.the leaves, but as soon as this fades the young 
capsule turns down among the leaves, and when about ripe again 
becomes erect. It is five-sided, with the sides joined together with 
a strong rib, and when ripe it splits down these ribs with a spring 
ejecting the seeds, two or three from each one,then closing up again, 
leaving the empty capsule much the same shape as the full one. The 
seeds resemble a miniature plum stone in shapeand appearance. In 
this case also the seeds fly a distance of several feet. 
