SEELAND 



5294 



SEIGNIORIAL TENURE 



ing air which buoys them up to the surface, and 

 after floating for months they will germinate 

 when lodged in the soil. It is believed that the 

 uninhabited islands of the South Seas in this 

 way have been planted with cocoa palms. 



The roses of Jericho scatter their seeds, not 

 when the winds are dry, but in moisture and 

 rain. The tightly curled fruits are untwisted 

 and opened by dampness; the seeds are then 

 washed out by the rain. The capsules of the 

 ice plants are similarly opened by the rain, and 

 another interesting action of moisture in the 

 distribution of seeds is seen in the hopping or 

 creeping fruits of the plants of the hot plains. 

 These fruits have a stiff bristle projecting from 

 one side, which changes its position with at- 

 mospheric changes, thus propelling the fruit 

 by causing it to hop or spring along the ground. 



Dispersal by Animals. Other seeds are de- 

 signed to be carried by animals. The fruits are 

 provided with sharp spikes, hooks or claws 

 which catch in the animal's fur or man's cloth- 

 ing. These burs are sometimes like the cata- 

 pult fruits thrown at the passing animal by the 

 swaying plant. The stalks of some plants are 

 claws, and, carrying the seed with them, cling 

 to any rough surface with which they come in 

 contact. 



The seeds of edible fruits also are widely 

 scattered by man and animals. The fruits of 

 the wild cherry, currant and raspberry are often 

 carried long distances by birds. They are then 

 eaten, and the seed either dropped to the 

 ground or later expelled from the crop. This 

 explains how wild cherry and apple trees spring 

 up in woods and meadows and how bittersweet 

 and berry bushes come to grow in the forks of 

 trees. Migratory birds carry seeds in the mud 

 which clings to their claws when they are 

 startled into flight. Nuts are carried to new 

 places by squirrels and other animals, which 

 bury them and often leave them to germinate 

 the following spring. 



Even if wind and water fail in effecting a 

 wide dispersal, seeds are always scattered within 

 short distances, thus insuring the perpetuity of 

 the plant. So wonderfully constructed are a 

 few plants that if pollination does not take 

 place and the flowers produce no seeds, fruits 

 producing seeds which germinate are formed 

 underground and a new plant springs up in the 

 place occupied by the old plant in the preced- 

 ing year. E.B.P. 



Consult Beal's Seed Dispersal; Morley's Seed- 

 Babies. 



SEE 'LAND. See ZEALAND. 



SEIDL, zi'd'l, ANTON (1850-1898), an Hun- 

 garian musical conductor, born at Budapest, 

 was trained in the Leipzig Conservatory. At 

 the age of twenty-two he was considered such 

 an accurate musician that Wagner called him 

 to Bayreuth, Germany, to be one of his copy- 

 ists. Seidl became an intense admirer of Wag- 

 ner and assisted in the first of the famous 

 Bayreuth Festivals in 1876. A little later the 

 composer recommended him as conductor of 

 the Stadt theater of Leipzig, and there until 

 1882 he brought forth the greater German 

 operas in a manner that won him fame. In 

 June, 1882, he presented Wagner's Trilogy -in 

 London and roused to enthusiasm an audience 

 previously rather indifferent to Wagnerian 

 work. In 1885 he succeeded Leopold Dam- 

 rosch as conductor of German opera in New 

 York and during that year his orchestra at- 

 tained such fame that he could fill only a small 

 portion of the engagements offered. He be- 

 came a conductor at Bayreuth in 1896, but soon 

 returned to New York, where he died on March 

 28, 1898. 



SEIDLITZ POWDERS, sed'lits pou'derz, a 

 laxative, fizzing preparation, consisting of two 

 separate powders which are taken together. 

 They are usually put up in blue and white 

 papers, the blue containing tartrate of soda and 

 potash (Rochelle salts) with bicarbonate of soda, 

 the white one containing tartaric acid. The 

 powders are dissolved separately in two half- 

 filled tumblers of water, and one solution is 

 then poured into the other. Effervescence be- 

 gins immediately, and the draught should be 

 taken at once. The powders give better ef- 

 fects when taken on an empty stomach; they 

 produce a gentle, relieving action of the bow- 

 els. The name comes from that of a town in 

 Bohemia, where a mineral water with similar 

 effects is found. 



SEIGNIORIAL TENURE, senyo'rial ten' 

 we, a system of feudal tenure of land which 

 prevailed in Quebec for nearly two centuries. 

 It was instituted by the great Cardinal Riche- 

 lieu, who patterned it after the French feudal 

 system. Large grants of land, called seigniories, 

 were bestowed upon men of high position. These 

 seigneurs, or -seigniors, granted parcels of land 

 to censitaires, who in turn bestowed smaller 

 grants upon the habitants (see CANADA, page 

 1122). Each of these classes of grantees 

 paid rentals or fees and sometimes even per- 

 sonal services to the overlords. So long as 

 population was sparse, there was little com- 

 plaint, but gradually there arose great discon- 



