SEED SOWING 



221 



pod. While both seeds and pods are still green the 

 latter separates in longitudinal strips, all of which 

 are ready, at the slightest touch, to curl downward 

 into tight coils. The action is 

 so sudden, the flight of seeds 

 so amazingly quick, we cannot 

 tell what has happened, but we 

 hear the seeds falling like rain- 

 drops all about, and we see the 

 shreds of the pod, curled up 

 like helical watch-springs, dan- /^ 

 gling at the lower end of the 

 axis. 



Some writers say that few 

 of these seeds germinate, but I 

 am inclined to think that this 

 is an error, for the jewel-weed grows so pro- 

 fusely in moist places that it makes a veritable 

 tangle. 



The Fraxinilla, Dictamnus, or gas-plant, forms 

 a very pretty seed-vessel like a star-shaped flower, 

 whose lining becomes five small, hard pods, one in 

 each point of the star. These 

 little pods act very much like lupin 

 pods. When they dry, their points 

 curl back, and all their contents 

 are hurled forth with force. 



JEWEL-WEED 



FRAXINILLA 



