NUMBER XXVI 

 SEED- SCATTERING 



IN autumn man is harvesting and gathering into 

 barns, but Nature is scattering abroad and 

 sowing. Scattering means rather more than sowing, 

 for it is important that what is sown should be 

 carried away from the shadow of the parent plant 

 or away from a crowded area. It is well that the 

 family should scatter, though there is always the 

 danger that some are lost altogether, and that others 

 are borne into very unsuitable places. 



Perhaps the simplest scattering is seen in box- 

 fruits which break up and allow the seeds to tumble 

 out. They may rebound to some distance when 

 they fall, or they may be blown by gusts of wind, or 

 they may be carried by runlets of water. The ants 

 sometimes take the seeds of the cow-wheat into 

 their nests, as if they mistook them for their own 

 offspring, for they are not very unlike cocoons. 



But the gentle breaking up of a box-fruit can be 

 improved upon, and there are various degrees of 

 explosive scattering, from the popping of whin- 

 pods and broom-pods, which we often hear when 

 sitting quietly in the country, to the energetic 

 slinging of the balsam. What usually happens is 



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