112 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



be a structure with a great purpose at its back. These 

 " airy nothings " of the child represent some of the 

 means whereby this earth has become peopled and 

 pastured with the fulness of vegetable growth. 



The floating dandelion seed, however, is but the 

 beginnings of thought in this direction, as I have said. 

 When you stroll through the garden or by the way- 

 side, note how herb-robert, by an ingenious catapult- 

 arrangement, plays at " pitch and toss " with its seeds 

 and scatters them abroad and around. If you come 

 across a squirting cucumber anywhere in the south of 

 Europe beware of touching it, lest you be greeted with 

 a veritable explosion of seeds. Watch the ripe poppy- 

 head, full of seeds, and note the little doors which lie 

 just under the lid. You may understand then, how, 

 when the flower-stalk sways to and fro with the wind, 

 the seeds are ejected and thrown out from their parent- 

 capsule. 



Of winged seeds, too, there are many tolerably heavy 

 kinds, which are dispersed by means of the wind act- 

 ing on their parachutes. The sycamore seed has a 

 double wing, as also has that of the maple, and the 

 ash and fir are also to be reckoned with in this sense 

 of wind-dispersed plants. When you stop to examine 

 the burdock seeds, you will then discover how the 

 animal is pressed into the service of the plant, for you 

 may note the hooked hairs with which the seeds are 

 provided and wherewith they cleave and cling to the 

 hair and fur of sheep and other unsuspecting ministers 

 of plant-life. 



Nor is the service of the animal always unconscious. 

 There is a South African plant whose seeds or fruits 

 possess hooks of such a nature that, when the lion has 

 innocently been made a carrier and disperser of these 



