SEED SOWING 



223 



WITCH-HAZEL 



exactly as a cherry-pit 

 is "flipped" between 

 the finger and thumb. 

 The operation can be 

 studied on a large scale 

 in pods of the witch- 

 hazel. For a whole 

 year the little round 

 seed-vessels have been 



growing and perfecting their twin charges of seed, 

 when, late in October, they split across and open 

 like an elfin mouth. Within, we see two divisions, 

 each with a hard, brown lining, and a shining black 

 seed. The mouth opens wider, the lining pinches 

 together, when, without warning, the seed is 

 "flipped" and gone. Mr. Gibson, by experimenting 

 in a quiet room, found that the witch-hazel seeds 

 could fly as far as thirty feet. 



The pansy and violet form a globular seed-vessel 

 which later splits into three wide- 

 ly spreading seed-pods. Then 

 each little pod dries and pinches 

 its closely packed contents, till at 

 length the pressure becomes too 

 strong to endure, and all hop out 

 and scatter. 

 PANSY The wood-sorrel forms a long, 



