332 PLANT-LIFE 



grounds for botanists, and waste ground in the neigh- 

 bourhood of railway, canal, and steamer wharves be- 

 comes interesting on account of the " foreigners " which 

 make sporadic appearances there. 



Movement accompanied by successful " placing," 

 one might say " sowing," of seed is exhibited by the 

 Ivy-leaved Toadflax {Linaria cymbalaria). This plant 

 is common on old garden walls. Its pretty lilac and 

 yellow flowers reach out from the wall, courting pollinat- 

 ing insects, but when the fruit is formed the stalk 

 bearing it bends over. Thus when the seed is set at 

 liberty some of it is sure to be deposited in a crevice 

 where it will have the chance to germinate. 



But this chapter might be continued almost indefi- 

 nitely with accounts of examples of provision for 

 posterity and the perpetuation of the race. We shall 

 conclude it with a reference to the remarkable seeds 

 of the Stork's-bill [Erodium, Plate LXVII.) • This plant 

 belongs to the Geranium family; it has received its 

 common name from the fancied resemblance of its fruit 

 to a stork's bill. The seeds retain the long styles of the 

 pistils, and when they are released from the fruit they 

 fall to the ground, carrying the styles with them. Each 

 style bears a number of silky hairs, and when released 

 it quickly forms a spiral, after the manner of a cork- 

 screw. In the formation of the spiral,, the silky hairs 

 are compelled to project. Gravity determines that 

 the seed end reaches the ground, but the attached 

 style — its tail, so to speak — may find a place among 

 grass or the stems of other plants. The anterior end 

 of the seed is pointed. Under conditions of moisture 

 the little corkscrew unwinds its spiral and, of course, 



