THE HAREBELL. 



which gives it its familiar slenderness and 

 elegance. The hanging domes of the flowers 

 are entered from below by bumble-bees, 

 which are strong enough to push aside the 

 fringed and close-set teeth that edge the 

 base of the stamens, put there on purpose 

 to baffle less useful honey-thieving visitors. 

 Equally strange is the egg-shaped capsule 

 which, later on, contains the seeds ; it opens 

 by five short clefts near the top. The actual 

 reason for this arrangement is itself a some- 

 what odd one. The seeds can only drop 

 out through the pores or clefts when a high 

 wind blows and sways the waving stem 

 violently. At such times the little grains 

 get carried by the breeze to considerable 

 distances ; and this serves not only to dis- 

 seminate the kind, but also to carry the 

 majority of the seeds to unoccupied spots, 

 where rotation of crops can thus be secured 

 by letting the young plants sprout at a 

 distance from the soil exhausted by their 

 mother. Similar devices for securing rotation 

 249 



