NEWS OF SPRING 



3 

 This need of movement, this craving for space, among the 

 greater number of plants, is manifested in both the flower 

 and the fruit. It is easily explained in the fruit, or, in any 

 case, discloses only a less complex experience and foresight. 

 Contrary to that which takes place in the animal kingdom 

 and because of the terrible law of absolute immobility, the 

 chief and worst enemy of the seed is the paternal stock. We 

 are in a strange world, where the parents, unable to move from 

 place to place, know that they are condemned to starve 

 or stifle their offspring. Every seed that falls at the foot of 

 the tree or plant is either lost or doomed to sprout in wretched- 

 ness. Hence the immense effort to throw off the yoke and 

 conquer space. Hence the marvellous systems of dissemina- 

 tion, of propulsion, of navigation of the air which we find 

 on every side in the forest and the plain: among others, to 

 mention, in passing, but a few of the most curious, the aerial 

 screw or samara of the Maple; the bract of the Lime-tree; the 

 flying-machine of the Thistle, the Dandelion and the Salsify; 

 the detonating springs of the Spurge; the extraordinary squirt 

 of the Momordica; the hooks of the eriophilous plants; and 

 a thousand other unexpected and astounding pieces of mech- 



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