DRUMMOND'S DRYAS FRUITING ON A 

 GRAVEL-BAR 



Dryas Drummondii Richards 

 ROSE FAMILY 



Having now considered many flowers, it seems fitting that, 

 before bringing this series to a close, we should glance at a few 

 of the seeds, or fruits as a botanist calls them, the production 

 of which is the object of all blossoms. 



Our photograph of Drummond's Dryas, fruiting on a gravel- 

 bar of a great northern river, was chosen because it illustrates 

 so well the frequent beauty of this final stage in plant growth, 

 and also the lavish manner in which seeds are usually produced. 



This plant forms dense mats of foliage above which in early 

 Summer rise small, short-stemmed flowers. The petals wither, 

 and the numerous styles afterwards elongate into twisted awns, 

 fringed throughout their length with fine hairs. While still 

 immature these styles are tightly twisted together, but when 

 ripe they fluff out into a downy ball two inches or more in diameter. 

 The seed-stems lengthen to eight or ten inches, thus raising the 

 seed-heads well above the leaves. 



As to the beauty of such a Dryas bed there can be no question. 

 The soft, feathery expanse of plumose seeds gleaming in the 

 sunshine quite surpasses in attractiveness the same bed when 

 dotted with small yellow flowers. And since this one colony shows 

 thousands of seed-heads, and each head has about one hundred 

 and fifty seeds, some idea of the great quantity of seed produced 

 is readily formed. 



But, when the individual plant has ripened a good crop of seed, 

 the achievement will be of little benefit to the race unless the seeds 

 reach a place where they can grow successfully. If they fall 

 directly to the ground, then, in the case of all perennials, the parent 

 itself becomes the chief danger to its offspring. Plants, therefore, 

 have developed many devices to scatter their seeds abroad. 



As is fitting, these Dryas seeds, born beside the water, are good 

 swimmers. They are also able to fly, although not with the 

 buoyancy of thistle-down. Using both modes of travel, they 

 quickly reach and triumphantly occupy the gravel-bars on 

 thousands of miles of northern waterways. 



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