upon, their long tails stand erect above 

 the surface, like so many bulrushes 

 growing in the water." 



The Pintails are silent during the day 

 but at night they frequently utter a mild 

 quacking note. They are birds of rapid 

 flight and they also possess shy and wary 

 habits. It is unfortunate, however, that 

 when they are flushed by the shooting of 

 a gun near them, the birds fly upwards 



as a flock, thus giving the hunters a 

 splendid opportunity to kill quite a num 

 ber. It seems strange that they do not 

 scatter in all directions or retreat into 

 dense vegetable growths, as many other 

 species of ducks always do under the 

 same circumstances. This fault in their 

 habits has been the cause of their disap 

 pearance in many localities where they 

 were once abundant. 



AN AUNT JANE STORY 



SEEDS 



"Children," said Aunt Jane, as a group 

 gathered about her for a little talk, "do 

 you know of anything in nature more 

 wonderful than a seed? Dame Nature 

 takes care to grow single flowers mainly 

 as they produce more seed, the double 

 flowers sacrifice the seeds to petals. 

 There is a wonderful difference in the 

 number of seeds produced by flowers." 



"I should say so," said John. "A 

 poppy has a whole cup full !" 



"I read about an orchid," said Alice, 

 "that produced 72,000,000 seeds." 



"Mr. Darwin calculated," Aunt Jane 

 continued, "that the spotted orchid pro 

 duces so many seeds that the descendants 

 from one plant its great-grandchildren 

 would more than clothe the entire sur 

 face of the globe, allowing each plant 

 just room to grow, and yet, strange to 

 say, 'this plant is not increasing in most 

 places." 



"I guess red clover does not have too 

 many seeds, unless bumble bees are 

 plenty," said Howard. 



"No ; that most useful plant only bears 

 about 2,720 seeds on each one hundred 

 heads, and needs the help of bumble bees 

 to do that, but common bees can fertilize 

 the second crop." 



"Does the size of seeds have anything 

 to do. with the size of the tree, plant, or 

 flower?" Alice inquired. 



"Nothing whatever," was the response. 

 "Nor anything as regards length of life. 

 Let us take this brown apple seed and 

 read its fairy-like story. The maturity 

 of this seed was not accomplished with 

 out special care. Mother Nature has 

 curiouslv contrived that in a cluster of 



apple blossoms the central flower shall 

 open first. All around it is a ring of 

 brilliant, unopened buds with the under 

 surface of the petals most highly colored. 

 This coloring of the petals on the under 

 side assists in the successful fertilization 

 of the central flower. Thus the buds 

 perform a healthful function which in 

 other flowers is performed by older blos 

 soms. The central apple blossom is often 

 the only one that bears an apple. All the 

 rest take their chances. The more con 

 spicuous a floral cluster the more certain 

 the bees will visit it, as they have learned 

 that faded flowers have been already 

 rifled of honey. When the fruit appears 

 it is first the color of the leaves; this 

 serves to protect it in order that the seed 

 may ripen. But when this is effected, 

 the apples are then painted gold or car 

 mine." 



"Well, _ Auntie," cried Alice, "I have 

 often noticed how brilliant apple flower 

 buds are, but did not know they were 

 colored on the wrong side to insure fer 

 tilization. Of course, usually, in a flower 

 the upper surface is most brilliant." 



"I suppose, then, we may conclude," 

 said Howard, "that bunches of apple 

 blossoms are truly altruistic." 



"Just hear Howard's big word, 'altru 

 istic' indeed!" cried the girls. "He's 

 been studying the dictionary and is 

 primed." 



"Hark ! hark !" said Aunt Jane. "Now 

 here is a curious three-cornered seed, the 

 buckwheat, which tells another story. 

 The plant has two kinds of blossoms dif 

 fering in the length of the stamens and 

 pistils. In one flower the pistil is divided 



202 



