224 GLIMPSES INTO PLANT-LIFE 



charming little wilding, the ivy-leaved toad-flax ; 

 it has a highly intelligent method of protecting 

 its seeds. When the flower is fertilised its stalk 

 bends its point round to the wall, and places the 

 tiny ovary in a cranny of the brickwork to 

 mature and ripen its seeds. These are but two 

 instances, out of hundreds, of plants whose fruits 

 are protected by what we call instinctive move- 

 ments. 



It is of essential importance to young seedlings 

 that they should have sufficient soil, light, and air, 

 to ensure their healthy growth. To begin life 

 cHrectly under the leaves of the parent plant is 

 to court failure and starvation, and so we find 

 in the fruit that wonderful provisions are made 

 to ensure the dispersion of the seed when it leaves 

 the parent plant, and so endless are the con- 

 trivances for the dispersion of fruits and seeds, 

 that it will be needful to devote the next chapter 

 entirely to that subject. 



Objects to collect and examine : — Compare 

 various fruits, fir-cone, banana, acorn, seeds, and 

 berries, &c. Examine a peach and pea-pod. 

 Collect seed-vessels, horse-chestnut, sweet-chestnut, 



