186 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
dry ground, where they will speedily wither away 
because they lack moisture; and even those which 
have the luck to fall into water or mud find 
life full of uncertainties. The rivers which they 
love shift their courses, the brooks and ponds dry 
up, the swamps are drained. 
Wood-rush seeds can settle and thrive in any 
piece of open wood- or meadow-land. 
But in regulating the affairs of the water-rushes, 
cat-tail flags and pickerel-weed, Nature provides 
beforehand for an altogether probable slaughter 
of the innocents. 
Under the microscope the seeds borne by several 
of the water-rushes show a delicate cross-bar pat- 
2 tern in high relief, and 
some are tipped with 
a queer little horn 
an, (Fig. 50). 
= In latter summer the 
cells which go to make 
up these cross-bars and 
horns become converted 
Pick Ho. Rush-senda: into mucilage. At first 
1, Juncus Greenii ; 2, Juncus tenuis. - 7 7 
this mucilage is dry and 
hard, but it can absorb a great quantity of water, 
and as it does so it becomes soft and_ swells 
