THE SYCAMORE "KEY" 



developed into a flattened wing ; and how useful 

 that wing is to the offspring I have already ex- 

 plained in describing how surprisingly the seeds 

 can travel. It is, of course, obvious that large 

 trees like sycamores cannot grow too closely to- 

 gether, so the parent plant provides its offspring 

 with the means whereby it can reach a suitable 

 situation in which to germinate and flourish. We 

 naturally expect that animals will affectionately 

 tend and help on their progeny, but with regard 

 to plants we are apt to overlook how thoroughly 

 their unconscious intelligence conveys to their off- 

 spring those features and habits, inherited from 

 their remote ancestors, which have been tested 

 and found good. Their methods are necessarily 

 quite different from those employed by animals, 

 but in their life economy they are none the less 

 potent. 



This ingenious method of dispersing the seeds 

 by the agency of the wind may at first seem 

 difficult to account for as a phase of evolution. 

 Here we have a plant producing seeds with 

 remarkable powers of flight, considering that they 

 are only seeds. How did they first become 

 aeronauts and learn to utilise the air to their 

 advantage ? Of course, when once the wings had 

 been produced their further perfection would be 

 simply the work of successive generations ; since 

 the farther the seeds were scattered from the 

 parent tree, the better chance of thriving would 

 the young plant have, and thus their wings and 

 peculiar method of flight would be further evolved 



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