PLANTS RIDE ON ANIMALS 93 



the parent plant has been preparing her babies for 

 their autumn trip. At last their dainty brown 

 travelling suits, all trimmed with sharp-pointed 

 hooks, are finished; and every little hook or finger 

 is ready to cling to the first passer-by, horse or cow, 

 boy or girl, man or woman. For they have never 

 been away from home before, and, like anxious chil- 

 dren, they naturally wish to ride out into the big 

 world ! At last along rush a number of schoolboys 

 on their outing. Seizing their opportunity, the 

 tiny akenes catch hold of the boys' trousers, and 

 over the hills they ride, until time for the boys' 

 luncheon, when they are picked off the trousers and 

 left many miles from their former homes, where 

 they will take up their residence and start a new 

 patch of stick-tights. 



Among the numerous kinds of seeds such as 

 those of strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, 

 cranberries, grapes, and currants which are 

 largely distributed by birds which eat them, it is 

 not uncommon for seeds to attach themselves to 

 the feet and feathers of birds, and thus ride away 

 to a suitable place of abode. However, this is not 

 so common a method of travelling as that of cling- 

 ing by means of hooks. 



There grows in the United States a very weird 

 looking fruit, known to botanists as the Martynia 



