upon, their long tails stand erect above 

 the surface, like so many bulrushes 

 growing in the water." 



The Pintails are silent during the day 

 but at night they frequently utter a mild 

 quacking note. They are birds of rapid 

 flight and they also^ possess shy and wary 

 habits. It is unfortunate, however, that 

 when they are flushed by the shooting of 

 a gun near them, the birds fly upwards 



as a flock, thus giving the hunters a 

 splendid opportunity to kill quite a num- 

 ber. It seems strange that they do not 

 scatter in all directions or retreat into 

 dense vegetable growths, as many other 

 species of ducks always do under the 

 same circumstances. This fault in their 

 habits has been the cause of their disap- 

 pearance in many localities where they 

 were once abundant. 



AN AUNT JANE STORY 



SEEDS 



"Children," said Aunt Jane, as a group apple blossoms the central flower shall 



gathered about her for a little talk, "do open first. All around it is a ring of 



you know of anything in nature more brilliant, unopened buds with the under 



wonderful than a seed ? Dame Nature surface of the petals most highly colored, 



takes care to grow single flowers mainly This coloring of the petals on the under 



as they produce more seed, the double side assists in the successful fertilization 



flowers sacrifice the seeds . to petals. 

 There is a wonderful difference in the 

 number of seeds produced by flowers." 



"I should say so," said John. "A 

 poppy has a whole cup full !" 



"I read about an orchid," said Alice, 

 "that produced 72,000,000 seeds." 



of the central flower. Thus the buds 

 perform a healthful function which in 

 other flowers is performed by older blos- 

 soms. The central "apple blossom is often 

 the only one that bears an apple. All the 

 rest take their chances. The more con- 

 spicuous a floral cluster the more certain 



"Mr. Darwin calculated," Aunt Jane the bees will visit it, as they have learned 

 continued, "that the spotted orchid pro- that faded flovv^ers have been already 

 duces so many seeds that the descendants rifled of honey. When the fruit appears 

 from one plant — its great-grandchildren it is first the color of the leaves; this 

 — would more than clothe the entire sur- serves to protect it in order that the seed 

 face of the globe, allowing each plant may ripen. But when this is effected, 

 just room to grow, and yet, strange to the apples are then painted gold or car- 

 say, this plant is not increasing in most mine." 

 places." "Well, Auntie," cried Alice, "I have 



"I guess red clover does not have too often noticed how brilliant apple flower 



many seeds, unless bumble bees are buds are, but did not know they were 



plenty," said Howard; colored on the zvrong side to insure fer- 



"No ; that most useful plant only bears tilization. Of course, usually, in a flower 



about 2,720 seeds on each one hundred the upper surface is most brilliant." 



"I suppose, then, w€ may conclude," 

 said Howard, "that bunches of apple 

 blossoms are truly altruistic." 



"Just hear Howard's big word, 'altru- 

 istic' indeed !" cried the girls. "He's 

 been studying the dictionary and is 



heads, and needs the help of bumble bees 

 to do that, but common bees can fertilize 

 the second crop." 



"Does the size of seeds have anything 

 to do with the size of the tree, plant, or 

 flower?" Alice inquired. 



"Nothing whatever," was the response, primed." 

 "Nor anything as regards length of life. "Hark ! hark !" said Aunt Jane. "Now 



Let us take this brown apple seed and here is a curious three-cornered seed, the 

 read its fairy-like story. The maturity buckwheat, which tells another story, 

 of this seed was not accomplished with- The plant has two kinds of blossoms dif- 

 out special care. Mother Nature has fering in the length of the stamens and 

 curiously contrived that -in a cluster of pistils. In one flower the pistil is divided 



202 



