WHAT PLANTS DO FOR THEIR YOUNG. 167 



is one such seed among the many ; but in wheat 

 or oats the fruit is small and one-seeded, and its 

 covering is so closely united with the seed as to 

 be practically inseparable. Fruits like these do 

 not open, and are dispersed whole. The fruits 

 of most composites are crowned by the feather- 

 like hairs which represent the calyx, and float 

 on the breeze as thistledown or dandelion-clocks 

 (Figs. 42, 43, 44, 45). John-go-to-bed-at-noon, 

 an English composite of the dandelion type, has 

 a very remarkable and highly-developed para- 

 chute of this description. In the anemones and 

 clematis the fruit consists of several distinct 

 one-seeded carpels, each furnished with a long 

 feathery awn for the purpose of floating; our 

 common English clematis or traveller's joy, 

 when in the fruiting condition, is known on this 

 account as " old man's beard." Floating fruits 

 like these, or those of many sedges and grasses, 

 will often be carried by the wind for miles 

 together. A well-known example of this type 

 is the sedge commonly though wrongly described 

 as cotton-grass. 



In other instances it is the seed, not the fruit, 

 that is winged or feathered. The pod of the 

 willow opens at maturity, and allows a large 

 number of cottony seeds to escape upon the 

 breeze. The same thing happens in the beau- 

 tiful rose-bay and the other willow-herbs. 

 Cotton is composed of the similar floating hairs 

 attached to the seeds of a sub-tropical mallow- 

 like tree. 



you will have observed, however, that not one 



