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final lodging places. Thistles, golden-rods, cat-tails, — in 

 fact a great many kinds of plants send their seed-babies 

 out into the .world on the arms of the wind. 



jMore hazardous than trusting to the wind, but equally 

 efficient when it finds its victim, is the practice of some 

 plants of arming their seeds with hooks designed to catch 

 in the hair of passing animals or the clothing of people. 

 One of the best examples of this kind of dispersal is shown 

 by the common burdock. The burs are commonly used 

 by children for making cradles, houses, funny men, balls to 

 throw to one another, etc., — uses for which the burs readily 

 lend themselves but of course entirely different from what 

 the plants intended. These burs are very annoying to 

 dogs and sheep for it is almost impossible to extract them, 

 from hair without first breaking them in bits. They do not 

 trouble people so much because on account of their size 

 and conspicuity they can be readily seen and avoided. 



There are other seeds, however, which attach themselves 

 to us without our knowledge, being noticed only when parts 

 of our clothing are set as thickly with seeds as a hedgehog 

 is with quills. One of the worst offenders in this respect 

 is the bur-marigold, more commonly known perhaps as 

 "stick-tight," the seeds of which are universally described 

 as "beggar's ticks." We do not get a "square deal" from 

 bur-marigold for it literally hands us its seeds by the 

 hundred but we must pick them off one by one. It may be 

 interesting to know that the generic name of these plants 

 is "Bidens," meaning two teeth, referring of course two 

 the two teeth on the seeds that bits so tenaciously into our 

 clothing. 



Then there are the tick-trefoils, often known as 

 "beggars-lice," those small, pouch-like ' seeds that literally 

 bury themselves in our garments. We know not where we 

 get them, — ^they steal upon us unwares and they stay until 

 plucked off individually, one by one. 



Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, checkerberries, 

 etc. are eaten by birds and the seeds dropped in various 



