PLANTS AND THEIK SEEDS. 149 



near it, appears to be made of white feathers ; and the ponte- 

 deria cordata lifts its large leaves and blue flowers high out 

 of the water. 



Let us leave for a moment the edge of my pool, to go and 

 seek, in another corner of the garden the cyclamen, which has 

 for its seed, cases analogous to those of the water-lily and th« 

 vallisneria. Its root is a large shapeless tubercle, from which 

 first issue the leaves, which are of the consistency and some- 

 what of the shape of those of certain ivies, but are agreeably 

 streaked with white and clear green. These leaves form a 

 circle in several rows, leaving in the middle of them a round 

 space where the earth is bare; from this space, at a later 

 period, rise buds of flowers upon peduncules, rolled spirally 

 in the form of a corkscrew, which unbend gradually, and 

 bear, at an elevation of some inches, white or purplish flowers, 

 the centre of which is inclined towards the ground, and the 

 under extremity of the petals pointing upwards. When the 

 flower is withered, when the petals are dry, there remains 

 nothing but an ovary enlarged by fecundation, and a little 

 capsule of reddish green, which contains the seed. The 

 cyclamen has not the same confidence in the air that other 

 plants have ; it contracts its spiral again, and brings back its 

 capsule under the ground, where its seeds wUl ripen and be 

 ready sown. 



In a very different manner we have seen the scorsonerias 

 and the dandelions give to the winds their seeds crowned with 

 an aigrette in the form of a feather. Most plants allow their 

 seeds to fall at their feet. The balsam launches its seed to 

 a distance. You know the balsam, with its beautiful flowers, 

 red, white, flesh-colour, violet, streaked with white and violet, 

 or white and red; when its seeds are ripe, it splits the capsule 

 which contains them, and launches them to a distance of 

 several feet; they thus frequently escape the hands of the 

 gardener who wishes to preserve them. 



