SEED-SCATTERING 



MAN is harvesting and gathering into barns, but Nature 

 is scattering abroad and sowing, and nothing is 

 more characteristically autumnal than this dispersal of 

 seeds. It is one of the most interesting chapters in the 

 Natural History of the Seasons. 



The import of the scattering is partly, of course, just 

 sowing, but it is also advantageous that what is sown 

 should be carried away from the shadow of the parent 

 plant or away from a crowded area. It is well that the 

 family should scatter. There is an attendant disadvantage 

 that many are lost altogether, and that others are borne 

 into very unsuitable situations. That the advantages 

 must in many cases far outweigh the disadvantages of 

 dispersal, may be safely inferred from the fact that the 

 adaptations securing it are so numerous and varied. 



Perhaps the simplest of all ways is seen in box-fruits 

 which break up and allow the seeds to tumble out. They 

 may rebound to some distance when they fall, or they may 

 be blown by gusts of wind, or they may be carried by 

 runlets of water. The ants sometimes take the seeds of 

 the cow-wheat (Melampyrum) into their nests, as if they 

 mistook them for their own offspring, for they are not very 

 unlike cocoons. 



It is evident, however, that the gentle breaking up of 

 a box-fruit can be improved upon, and there are various 

 degrees of explosive dispersal, from the popping of whin- 

 pods and broom-pods, which we often hear when sitting 



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