LIFE-HISTORY OF THE HERB ROBERT 123 
rod; by the time that everything is quite ready the 
seeds become detached from the centre, but they 
still stand in their original position, each in a little 
pocket into which it fits neatly, and one rather wonders 
why they do not fall 
out or topple over 
sideways. However, 
if we have good eyes 
or a lens we shall be 
able to see that de- 
spiteappearanceseach 
seed, instead of being 
free ‘from its elastic 
strip, or spring, is still 
attached to it by two 
threads, and it is a 
hundred chances to 
one that while we are 
looking at it the spring 
will suddenly curl up 
with a click and break 
clean away from the 
bill. 
It does this with 
great force for so hai 
Fie. 49.—Herb Robert. Diagram of 
small a thing, with fruit about to throw the last of its 
the result that the _ five “seeds.” x 4. 
seed at the bottom is  §, the “seed”; ', the two threads; Sp, the 
shot clear of the calyx sae: 
and indeed out of sight. The spring breaks away 
from below upwards, and the threads by which the 
seed is attached to it are not broken as we might 
expect them to be; they run the whole way up the 
spring, and as the seed is shot they are ripped off 

