SEED SOWING 



217 



MARTYNIA 



the wool of sheep, are 

 but examples of this op- 

 portunist poKcy of the 

 plants, seeking a means 

 to send forth their seeds 

 into far fields and pas- 

 tures new. Returning 



from a walk, we can gather from our tweed 

 suit or woollen stockings a choice collection of 

 seeds of burdock, beggar-ticks, agrimony, or bed- 

 straw\ Some of these tramp seeds are shown in 

 the adjoining sketch. The Martynia, or unicorn- 

 plant, produces perhaps the largest -of any of these 

 clinging seed-vessels, and the most curious in ap- 

 pearance. These consist of a recepticle terminating 

 in a pair of black horns, hard, strong, and much 

 curved. In size and appearance they seem as if 

 they must have been shed by some small antelope. 

 The curved points catch upon any being who passes, 

 and the seeds are shaken out through an opening 

 at the base, where the horns split apart. The 

 Martynia grows in Indiana and through the West 

 to northern Mexico, but it also is cultivated and 

 naturalised northward. 



An interesting tale is told of a royal gift which 

 unintentionally brought about seed-dispersal as its 

 corollary. A buffalo was sent to the King of Ter- 



