SEED-TIME AND SOWING 59 



seeds. What a safe and altogether cozy place 

 for the little apple seed babies! 



Did you ever consider why the trees hide 

 their seeds in fruit? And why these fruits are 

 colored so beautifully to contrast with the fo- 

 liage? They are advertising schemes, pure and 

 simple. And most alluring ones, too ! Neither 

 man nor beast can pass them by, and all must 

 do their share in helping to Scatter the seed. 

 When we eat a peach, we throw away the stone. 

 Perchance, it falls in a likely spot and a seed- 

 ling peadi is the result ! 



Seeds and the methods Nature employs to get 

 them sowed are most interesting. But, first of 

 all, we want to see how the seed itself is formed. 

 No tree makes shorter work of the seed business 

 than the maple. Let us see about her methods. 

 We have already noted that the tree has two 

 kinds of blossoms, and we have admired the lit- 

 tle cups set with crimson petals. See, in this 

 cup, or calyx, are a number of little threads 

 tipped with yellow knobs. These knobs are the 

 anthers and out of them shakes the golden pol- 

 len dust. Over here is a cup that is diiferent. 

 Instead of anthers, there is a little red, forked 

 tongue, called a stigma. The inner faces of this 

 stigma are sticky. At the base of the stigma 

 is a closed chamber in which lies a tiny soft 



