336 



FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



seeds themselves than in the crest which surmounts 

 them. 



Seeds are also in some instances invested with a 

 dense down, as in the familiar example of the cotton 



Fig. 78. — (a) Crested seed of Sarcostemma, {b) Echites scabra, 

 (c) Willow-herb {Efiilobium), (d) Milk Thistle {Silybum 

 marianiim). 



plant, in which the seed is covered with the substance 

 called "cotton." In some other plants, which are 

 closely allied, this cotton is silky and shining (as in 

 Bombax and Eriodendrori), but this same silky sub- 



