^be Stors ot tbe IRoot 23 



the silk- weed, which takes its name from the great 

 mass of fine silky hairs which fills its seed vessels. 

 Nature provided in this fashion for the dissemina- 

 tion of the seed. We loosen a handful of the dainty 

 hairs from the pod, hold them to the air, and away 

 they sail ! They remind us of so many other wind- 

 blown seeds ! In spring the dandelion clocks are 

 like fairy balloons tilting along the top of the 

 grasses. The first breeze loosens them ; away they 

 go, silver boats with silken sails, voyaging to fairy 

 land, to bring back to the children next spring another 

 golden age ! Many a farmer who endures dande- 

 lions for old love's sake has cursed the equally-well- 

 provided thistle, and wished dire wreck to overtake 

 every one of its little boats sailing the seas of air ; 

 but thistles, like some other creations, seem to thrive 

 particularly well on curses ! Prominent among all 

 seeds provided with hairy sails stands one that has a 

 world-wide and political imjDortance — King Cotton. 

 What would the races of men do if that vast mass 

 of snowy, elastic, tough hairs which enfold the oily 

 seed of the cotton plant met disaster? Ruin, naked- 

 ness, starvation would shriek around a world, all 

 for want of certain vegetable hairs ! Other plant- 

 hairs have a less noble reputation. Here. is a with- 

 ered root of the crimson clover, an introduced 

 variety. The Agricultural Department of the 



