LIFE-HISTORY OF THE HERB ROBERT 129 
stamp on the ground close to him. And when he 
re-appears, as he is certain to do after an interval, it 
is even odds that he will have scraped the seed off 
either as he went in or else as he came out again, but 
whether this is really any advantage or not will 
depend upon the depth at which it is left in the soil. 
I cannot speak positively, but I do not think the 
seedling would grow through more than an inch, if as 
much. As a matter of fact, the seeds are shot during 
the warm, dry daytime and not in the evening, and 
while I do not imagine that they are at all likely to 
land on the body of a worm, it is on the other hand 
quite possible that, as they lie on the ground, the 
hygroscopic threads may cause them to cling to it, 
as they did to the body of the Garden Snail. 
And here I must remark, for I said that we should 
come to this point again, that ever since I began to 
deal with the dispersal of the seeds we have been 
engaged with what is most truly the resting period 
of the Herb Robert. and indeed of all plants. From 
the time that the seed is ripe until germination com- 
mences the little plantlet lies as it were in its own 
cradle and rests peacefully. That period may last 
only for a few days, or it may be for months. The 
only thing to arouse it is to plant the seed in the soil 
and to keep it moist and warm, and even so it will 
often remain dormant for a very considerable time. 
I am not able to state how long it can lie low and 
still retain its vital powers, nor yet the length of time 
that a seed may be on its travels in Nature and still 
be able to germinate. That sort of information is 
hard to acquire and might very well involve a great 
deal of patient and varied experiment; but I can 
speak quite confidently when I say that if we take a 
