Fruits and Seeds 23 



The most common agent of all for scattering seeds is 

 the wind. Many tree fruits have their skin produced 

 into a thin sail-like portion which catches the wind 

 without adding much to their weight. When ripe fruits 

 of this kind are blown from the tree by the autumn 

 gales, instead of falling straight to the ground they are 

 carried away. All feathery fruits (you would probably 

 like to call them seeds, but both fruit and seed are really 

 there) like those of the wild clematis and the dandelion 

 are again specially adapted for distribution by the wind 

 (Fig. 14). Weeds with winged fruit are those that we 

 find hardest to keep down in our gardens, for if only 

 one head of fruit is allowed to ripen the air is soon full 

 of seed and carries it everywhere. 



PRACTICAL WORK. 



1. Write down six fruits or seeds (not fleshy fruits or those 

 mentioned in chapter or questions) used as food by men. 



2. Arrange the following seed-vessels on a piece of paper and 

 write under each one how you think the seeds are scattered : 

 snapdragon, shepherd's purse, (columbine), lychnis, (buttercup), 

 lucerne. 



3. Write a short essay (not more than one page) on the signs of 

 autumn you noticed in your walk last week. 



4. Draw the following fruits x 3 and write underneath each one 

 for what distribution it is adapted, giving reasons : beech nut, 

 groundsel, wych elm, agrimony, blackberry, herb bennet. 



5. Look at the berries on your yew twig. What is there 

 curious about the position of the seed in the berry ? Is it inside the 

 berry ? Make a drawing to explain what you see. 



6. Throw a sycamore fruit high into the air, if possible out 

 of doors in a wind, or let it fall from an upper window. Describe in 

 writing how it falls to the ground. Draw the fruit x 3. Cut it in 

 half parallel to the wing and again draw it x 3, showing young plant 



