NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



awn in the stork's-bill and some grasses begins to 

 twist under the influence of the moisture in the 

 soil, and literally bores its way in. Again, the wall 

 of the seed or the fruit may have a gluey sheath, as 

 in the case of quince and flax, which fixes it to the 

 soil, and also serves to absorb water like a sponge. 

 In the pea-nut the fruit stalk curves down to the 

 ground and pushes the pod in, reminding one in a 

 quaint way of some animal hiding its egg in the 

 ground. Not less effective is the behaviour of the 

 ivy -leaved toad-flax, which beautifies so many old 

 walls. The fruit stalks bend away from the light, 

 and the fruits are actually pressed into the crannies 

 and crevices. That this works well is plain when we 

 notice the rapid spreading of this " mother of 

 thousands," as the plant is sometimes called, over 

 a wall or a cliff which seemed anything but a pro- 

 mising territory to colonize. 



Tennyson wrote that of fifty seeds Nature " often 

 brings but one to bear," and he afterwards thought 

 that it might be better to change " fifty " into 

 " myriad." There is no doubt about this, that 

 many of the scattered seeds never come to any- 

 thing ; but what we have been studying shows us 

 that there are many ways in which the scattering 

 works very well indeed. 



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