New Walks in Old Ways 



the wild onion's propagating possi- 

 bilities ? Its seed-top has perhaps fifty 

 pods, each with four tiny black trea- 

 sures ready for business next spring. 

 Pinch these seed pockets, and you will 

 release something delicate in the per- 

 fumery line. You may not want it 

 upon your handkerchief; still it is 

 merely suggestive of the real thing in 

 onion odordom. Everybody knows 

 plantain, with its tough mass of fibrous 

 roots and its tall seed stem. I saw one 

 today that was nearly two feet high, 

 bearing seeds for at least twelve inches 

 of its length — five or six hundred of 

 them, I should say, and this same 

 vigorous plant had six or eight of these 

 stalks. It then appears that this ex- 

 ceptionally fruitful mother had borne 

 probably 3,000 of the hard, light-brown 

 seeds, each theoretically capable of 

 germination next year. 



Old Helianthus, too, is the parent of 

 children countless. Most folk call him 

 the sunflower. He was once a mere 

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