FRUITS AND SEEDS 



139 



of pounds ster- 

 ling. Examine 

 the plant for, 

 yours elves. 

 Look at its won- 

 derful seeds 

 with, your lens. 

 Watch the 

 plant for a 

 whole year till 

 you know its 

 ways, and then 

 you will under- 

 stand why it is 

 such a terrible 

 and dangerous 

 pest. 



10. How birds 



Branch and fruit of the Bathurst burr : a much- 

 branched shrub 1 to 3ft. high with many 3 

 pronged spines : fruit egg shaped wi-th hooked 

 prickles. 



may carry 

 seeds in mud. 



You have often 

 watched a duck with its tail in the air and its 

 bill in the mud at the bottom of a pond. Now, 

 among the things that it finds in the mud are seeds. 

 Pond-mud is often full of seeds, and when a water- 

 fowl that has been wading in a pond flies away, it 

 often carries seeds in the mud on its legs. Eighty- 

 two different kinds of plants were grown from seeds 

 taken from the legs of a partridge Birds often fly 

 great distances, and now and then are blown far away 

 by great gales of wind. In this way, as well as by 

 seed-balloons, seeds may travel on the wings of the 

 wind. 



