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Now I am hoping that one of you children will be 
able to think out some such answer as this: — 
“Of course, the burdock plant doesn’t want its seeds 
to fall on the piece of ground that has been used up 
already by other burdocks, any more than the partridge 
vine wishes to drop its seeds in the same little hollow 
where other partridge vines have eaten all the good 
food. As this burdock plant cannot make its seed 
case so bright and pretty, and good to eat, that the 
birds will carry it off, it must manage in some other 
way to send its seeds on their travels. And this is 
what it does: it covers the seed case with little hooks. 
When the seeds inside are quite ripe, this case breaks 
off very easily. So when the children come hunting 
berries, it hooks itself to their clothes, or else it catches 
in the hair of their dogs, or takes hold of the wool of 
grazing sheep, and gets carried quite a way before it 
is picked or rubbed off. When that happens, it is far 
enough from its old home to set up for itself.” 
I should indeed be pleased if one of you children 
could give me some such answer as that. 
So you see this prickly seed case does just as much 
for its little charges as the juicy apple and velvety 
peach do for theirs. 
And the same thing is true of all those other hooked, 
or barbed, or prickly little objects that I picked off my 
clothes the other day, and that cling to you when you 
take a walk in the fall woods. 
They are all fruits. They are the ripe seed cases of 
the different plants. 
But they are dull-looking, and often quite vexing, 
