128 Flowers and their Pedigrees. 



with many of the southern species to the present day. 

 But when the stellate tribe took to being small and 

 weedy, they gave up their additional seeds and limited 

 themselves to one only in each cell. This is another 

 common result of the dwarfing process, and it is found 

 again in all the daisy tribe and in the umbellates, such 

 as fool's parsley. To make up, however, for the loss 

 in number of the seeds in each fruit, the number of 

 fruits on each plant is still enormous. How many 

 there are on a single weed of goose-grass I have 

 never had the patience to count, but certainly not less 

 than several hundred. You might find it a nice 

 amusement for a statistical mind to fill up this lacuna 

 in our botanical knowledge. 



Most of the stellate plants have simple little fruits 

 without any special means of dispersion, but in the 

 goose-grass the same sort of prickles as those of the 

 stem and leaves are further utilised for carrying the 

 seed to its proper place. You know seeds have many 

 devices for ensuring their dispersion to a distance 

 from the mother plant. Some are surrounded by 

 edible pulp, as in the case of the raspberry or the 

 gooseberry ; and these are swallowed by birds or 

 animals, through whose body they pass undigested, 

 and thus get deposited under circumstances peculiarly 

 favourable to their germination and growth. Others 



