ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND. 63 



fruits are those airy species which have taken to them- 

 selves wings like the eagle, and soar forth upon the free 

 breeze in search of what the Americans describe as 'fresh 

 locations.' Of this class the simplest type may be seen 

 in those forest-trees, like the maple and the sycamore, 

 whose fruits are flattened out into long expansions or 

 parachutes, technically known as ' keys,' by whose aid 

 they flutter down obliquely to the ground at a consider- 

 able distance. The keys of the sycamore, to take a 

 single instance, when detached from the tree in autumn, 

 fall spirally through the air owing to the twist of the 

 winged arm, and are carried so far that, as every 

 gardener knows, young sycamore trees rank among the 

 commonest weeds among our plots and flower-beds. A 

 curious variant upon this type is presented by the lime, 

 or linden, whose fruits are in themselves small wingless 

 nuts ; but they are born in clusters upon a common 

 stalk, which is winged on either side by a large 

 membranous bract. When the nuts are ripe, the whole 

 cluster detaches itself in a body from the branch, and 

 flutters away before the breeze by means of the common 

 parachute, to some spot a hundred yards or more, where 

 the wind chances to land it. 



The topmost place of all in the hierarchy of seed life, 

 it seems to me, is taken by the feathery fruits and seeds 

 which float freely hither and thither wherever the wind 

 may bear them. An immense number of the very 

 highest plants the aristocrats of the vegetable kingdom, 

 such as the lordly composites, those ultimate products 

 of plant evolution possess such floating feathery seeds ; 

 though here, again, the varieties of detail are too infinite 



