to 
CHELYTENHAM COLLEGE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
Bladders are generally formed by a loose calyx and are well 
seen in Colutea. the bladder Senna Staphylea Physalis, the Cape 
Gooseberry, and in a little English Clover (Trifolium fragiferum). 
Seeds are distributed abundantly by being blown about with the 
dust. For this they must be small,—such seeds we get in Orchids, 
Gentians, Campanulas, Broom-rapes, and Chickweeds. M. Richard, 
a French Botanist, has found on the seven great churches of Poi- 
tiers no less than seventy six different species of plants, many of 
which must have reached those old roofs and towers with the dust 
blown there.* 
The sixth method is explosive, —a tension is set up somewhere 
in the fruit whereby it bursts violently. In England we have three 
common plants provided with this mechanism, Dog-violet, Broom, 
and Gerania (these should not be confused with the so-called 
geranium of gardeners which is a true Pelorgonium). Amongst 
exotic plants we get Hura, the Sandbox tree, which explodes when 
dry with a noise like a pistol shot. The Squirting Cucumber 
(Ecbalium) of the shores of the Mediterranean when ripe becomes 
so full of a shiny mucilage that it bursts, breaking away from the 
stalk and ejecting the seeds violently. All fruits which open only 
at the top such as Poppy, Cowslip, Sweet William, scatter their 
seed by being shaken by the wind ; hence when the wind is strong 
enough the seeds may be thrown to some distance. 
Those fruits which are fleshy attract birds by the brightness of 
their colours: the seeds are provided with a hard coat whereby 
they can often defy the gizzard of the swallower. It may be noted 
here that the stones swallowed by birds are the mill stones which 
grind the food, and as the hard parts of some fruits, as Holly and 
Hawthorn, are nearly as hard as these pebbles they can escape 
whole and undigested. The Misletoe is always distributed by 
birds, the sticky nature of its fruit enabling it to stick on the bark 
when dropped. 
Some fruits resemble insects, and so may be carried away by 
insectivorous birds and dropped as soon as the deception is found 
out, such are Surpiurus vermiculatus, like a fat green caterpillar, 
—Surpiurus villorus and Dactylockuium, like Crutipedes,—Ricuius, 
the castor oil plant,—and some Spurges like beetles. 
* O. Richard.— Florule des Clochers et des Toitures des Eglises de Poitiers en 
Viennel Similar Floras have been published of Cologne Cathedral, the 
Colosseum, and of the Pavement in Paris. 
