1 86 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



dry ground, where they will speedily wither away 

 because they lack moisture; and even those which 

 have the luck to fall into water or mud find 

 life full of uncertainties. The rivers which they 

 love shift their courses, the brooks and ponds dry 

 up, the swamps are drained. 



Wood-rush seeds can settle and thrive in any 

 piece of open wood- or meadow-land. 



But in regulating the affairs of the water-rushes, 

 cat-tail flags and pickerel-weed, Nature provides 

 beforehand for an altogether probable slaughter 

 of the innocents. 



Under the microscope the seeds borne by several 

 of the water-rushes show a delicate cross-bar pat- 



2 tern in high relief, and 

 some are tipped with 

 a queer little horn 



Olnri Faga (Flg " 5 )- 



QfSl In latter summer the 



cells which go to make 

 up these cross-bars and 

 horns become converted 

 into mucilage. At first 

 this mucilage is dry and 

 hard, but it can absorb a great quantity of water, 

 and as it does so it becomes soft and swells 



FIG. 50. Rush-seeds. 

 \,Juncus Greenii : 2, Juncus tenuis. 



