FALL PLANT STUDY. 375 



living. What would be the result if all the hundreds of 

 seeds on each milkweed plant dropped down to the ground 

 and began to grow together ? Could they get soil enough 

 or sun enough, or rain enough ? Very few could grow or 

 even live. Mother Milkweed knows this, so she gives each 

 of her seed babies hairy wings or a balloon. 



The upper scales or seeds, those toward the more pointed 

 end of the pod, are on the outside and partly cover the 

 others ; so they must fly out first. The pod usually splits 

 open at the top first. Note how the silky tail on each scale 

 divides into two parts, and how its hairs spread apart, how 

 the least wind shakes the pod until the seeds with their 

 balloons are shaken out. Now we see why the pods are 

 on springs, and why they open toward the outside. As 

 the upper seeds escape, those below are pushed up and out 

 by the drying and spreading of their hairs, and are slowly 

 shaken out of the pod, one or two or a very few at a time. 



How easily they sail away ! How gently they drop to the 

 ground ! What comes to the help of the milkweed babies, 

 and carries them along ? Perhaps the children can see, in 

 a large pod from which the seeds have been partly dis- 

 charged, that each seed has a little saddle of its own, on 

 which it rides like a child on horseback, with part of its 

 tail on each side. The seeds are carried on a spindle- 

 shaped axis, fastened only at either end of the pod, so that 

 it is free to swing, somewhat like a hammock. On the 

 surface of this, extending from end to end, is a series of 

 thin, narrow, projecting ridgec ; the edge of each of these 

 is broken into scallops, forming the " saddles." Thus 

 each seed is kept in place. In each " saddle " is a brown 

 line which shows where the undeveloped seed was at- 

 tached ; here are the minute tubes through which the plant 

 mother provided each baby with "milk." These little 

 points are probably too difficult for the little folks, but 



