124 THE NATURE-STUDY OF PLANTS 
from the bottom to the top. The whole fruit breaks 
up thus into no less than eleven separate pieces, as 
follows: five seeds, five springs, 
and the central rod which remains 
in its place. 
Now it is almost impossible 
to find the seeds after this event, 
however closely we may watch, 
for they are tiny things of very 
much the same colour as the soil, 
and, moreover, they are shot a 
distance of about seven yards. 
Of course we must see them 
for ourselves, but if we want to 
be quite sure that we have got 
hold of the real thing we must 
take a few of the just-ripe fruits 
and shut them up in a box. It 
is quite easy to tell whether they 
are ripe or not by the sepals, 
tiga which open as soon as the seeds 
Fig. 50.—Herb Robert 
“seed” with threads. FC ready to be shot. 
Strictly speaking, it is We are not likely to have to 
a fruiflet conta wait long, and we shall then find 
c that they are little brown, hairy, 
wrinkled things with two long threads which fine 
away at the end furthest from the seed to a wisp of 
gossamer so delicate that it floats in the air and can 
hardly be seen. Like the fruitlets of the Storksbill, 
they are apparently hygroscopic for the greater part 
of their length, by which I mean that they readily 
take up and part with water in a moist atmosphere, 
and they curl and wave about in the air in response 
to changes in its humidity. 

