ha^el 



ACCORDING TO SEASON 



causes the little seed-vessel to recoil from your 

 touch with an elastic spring which sends the 

 seeds far into the neighboring thicket, that you 

 will hardly leave till the last tiny adventurer has 

 been started on his life-journey. 



On the hill-side grows a shrub with wavy- 

 toothed leaves, and a nut-like fruit which has 

 been ripening all summer. We know that this is 



Witch- the witch-hazel, because little bunches of fragrant, 

 narrow-petalled yellow flowers are bursting from 

 the branches. All the blossoms may not appear 

 for some time yet, but when the fruit has ripened 

 and the leaves are fallen they will surprise us like 

 a golden prophecy of spring. Break off and 

 carry home a fruiting branch. Soon the capsules 

 will snap elastically apart, discharging in every 

 direction their black, bony contents ; the action 

 of the parent plant somewhat recalling that of 

 the mother bird who pushes her young from the 

 edge of the nest that they may learn to shift for 

 themselves. 



Many seeds are washed by water to more or 



Washed less remote neighborhoods. Some become at- 

 tached with clods of earth to the feet of birds, 

 and are borne to other regions, where they thrive 

 or perish, according to their power of adapting 

 themselves to their new environment. How far 

 this last class of travellers may journey we real- 



176 



by water 



