PLANTS HIDE THEIR BLOSSOMS 169 
it, “sow-bread,” is another plant which buries its 
seeds. When they are ripening, the flower-stalk 
gradually twists itself spirally toward the earth, 
and here it forces itself into the ground, hiding its 
precious seeds from the ravages of birds and ani- 
mals. Some botanists believe that these seeds 
actually receive nourishment from the roots of the 
plant, as they seem to grow in no other situation. 
“The wallflower, the wallflower, 
How beautiful it blooms! 
It gleams above the ruined tower, 
Like sunlight over tombs; 
It sheds a halo of repose 
Around the wrecks of time— 
To beauty give the flaunting rose, 
The wallflower is sublime.” 
A most important wall-creeper, Linaria cym- 
balaria, hides its seeds—but not underground. 
This interesting wallflower, known as Kenilworth 
ivy, or ivy-leafed toad-flax, has a delicate fragrance 
making it doubly welcome as a guest on neglected 
walls. It grows on old, decayed, stony walls, 
usually where there is considerable moisture, and 
its small, worm-like stalks twist their tiny seed-pods 
into the little holes and crevices in the wall. Here, 
when the seeds are ripe, the pods burst open and 
plant them. In this way an entire wall soon be- 
comes covered in moss-like fashion with these inter- 
esting and human-like seed-sowers. 
