THE SEED : ITS SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION 47 



scattered away from the parent. Nature has provided 

 for this in manj^ ways. The most important of these 

 ways are : (I) wind; (2) water ; (3) animals; (4) explosive 

 or creeping habit of the seed pod. 



Those seeds which are scattered by the wind have either 

 a feathery growth attached, like the dandelion, which 

 enables them to fly through the air, or they have a keel- 



FiG. 14. 



- Seeds scattered by the wind. 



shaped attachment, which, acting like a ship's rudder, 

 turns the seed about in the air. The seeds in this last 

 group often whirl through the air as they fall from the 

 parent plant. The soft maple and the basswood are 

 excellent examples. Plants hke the tumJDling pigweed 

 and the Russian thistle, when mature, break off easily 

 from their roots and go bumping and tumbling along the 

 ground before the wind, scattering their seeds as they go. 

 Those seeds which are scattered by the water are usually 



