42 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



noticed how the long-legged hinge of the geranium, as of 

 the wild cranesbills, heave the seed away much in the manner 

 of some of the mediaeval siege engines. 



As you look more closely you find that some of the less 

 showy and obvious devices are yet more effective. Walking 

 one seed-time along the cliffs of South Wales, and climbing 

 repeatedly down and up the little crevasses that ran inland, 

 you may see stonecrop growing luxuriantly in many of the 

 minute crevices on the steep rocks. One knows that such 

 is the proper home of the stonecrop, but how in the world 

 did it plant itself there ? A German botanist has a theory 

 to account for the ubiquity of the stonecrop. The seeds, 

 as any one may see who has cared to notice, are held 

 singularly tightly in the little cases till the rain comes. To 

 the touch of rain they break; and are carried downwards 

 in the trickle, which makes its way along with the seed into 

 the depths of the tiniest crack. 



Darwin himself saw, though he did not make the generali- 

 sation, that much seed distribution is purely accidental so 



far as the artifice 

 of the plant is 

 concerned. He 

 gave a marvel- 

 lous instance, 

 which has be- 

 come one of the 

 best known of 

 his minor ex- 

 periments, of 



FRENCH PARTRIDGES . . 



what may be 



called the ' muddy boots ' system of dispersal. He was given 

 a lump of mud, which that great pedestrian, the French par- 

 tridge, had collected on one claw in running about the stubble. 



