176 JBotans 



the seeds for several yards about the parent plant. 

 The touch-me-not of the gardens is a good example 

 of this, also the jewel-weed of the brooksides. 



Other seeds are provided with wdngs, as those of 

 the maple, which grow in pairs so that there are two 

 wings, or as the ash, where each seed, or ke}^, has 

 one wing or sail, so it can be borne as a shuttle-cock. 



Thistle, dandelion, milk-weed seeds are furnished 

 wdth silken sails by which they are carried for long 

 distances by even the lightest breezes. 



Seeds with hooks and burrs depend for transporta- 

 tion upon animals, to which they cling, and having 

 been carried about for some time, they are finally 

 droj^ped where they can germinate, far from the 

 parent plant. Sheep, cows, and horses in pasture 

 may often be seen with hundreds of " weed-seeds " 

 cleaving to their hairy coats. 



Certain seeds have stiff projections, sensitive to 

 moisture and heat, by means of which, as by screws, 

 they work their way into the earth. This singular 

 power was in old times deemed a species of witch- 

 craft. 



The number of seeds is as countless as the sands 

 on the shore, the stars in the sky, or the drops in the 

 sea. How many seeds mature in a single head of 

 clover or panicle of grass ! How very many are the 

 seeds of a single melon or pumpkin, or poppy head ! 



