64 WONDERS OF PLANT LIFE 



the seeds are ready for dispersion the capsule 

 splits open, and the strong tense tissue covering 

 the seeds thus suddenly ruptured, throws them 

 to a considerable distance. 



Not a few of the pod-bearing plants contrive 

 to have their seeds scattered afar by means of 

 their legumes, which, when dry, curl up in spiral 

 fashion and so eject their contents. A very 

 simple device is that adopted by the Poppy, in 

 which the capsules scatter the seeds as they are 

 blown backwards and forwards by the wind. 

 Even with this arrangement the distribution 

 covers a much wider area than might be thought 

 possible. A strange form of seed dispersion is 

 that to be seen in the case of the Earth Nut 

 (Arachis hypogcea). The singular part about this 

 plant is that, as the seeds begin to ripen, the pods 

 are forced below the surface of the soil through 

 the lengthening of the flower stalks, and are in 

 this way actually planted. The same method 

 has been adopted by the Sweet Violet, and also 

 in the case of a few other plants. The pheno- 

 menon is certainly rather a puzzling one, for the 

 behaviour of these species can scarcely be said 

 to aid in the wide dispersal of the plant. In some 

 of the instances which possess this strange habit, 

 there are, in addition to the subterranean pods, 



