Ch. Vn, ;5| DISSEMINATION OF PLANTS 



365 



The Witch Hazel hurls forth its seeds in similar manner, as 

 does the Acanthus, the Castor Bean, and the West Indian 

 "Sand box," which bursts with a 

 noise described as like a pistol shot. 

 In some fruits it is the ripening not 

 of drj', but of osmotically turgescent 

 tissues, which produces the explosive 

 result, as in case of the Impatiens, 

 called also descriptively " Touch- 

 me-not," and the so-called "Squirting 

 Cucumber" of the Levant (Fig. 266). 

 Many accessory adaptations in 

 fruits, connected more or less directly 

 with dissemination, have been de- 

 scribed by various observers, although 

 not always accepted as genuine by 

 others. The Kenil worth Ivy and the 

 Chinese Primrose both grow in their 

 native homes upon steep rocky hill- 

 sides or cliffs ; both have phototropic 

 flowers, but their seed pods turn 

 away from light, thus bringing the seeds into clefts of the 

 rocks, whereby the plants are kept at the same elevations. 



Dandelions and 

 other plants hold 

 their flower buds 

 close to the 

 ground until 

 their flowers are 

 ripe, then raise 

 them until after 

 pollination, then 

 draw them down 

 once more until 

 ,_ ,„ , ,■ the fruits are 



■ The Squirting Cucumber (Ecbahum 



Elatcrium). ripe, and then 



Fig. 265. — A pod of 

 Lathyrua vernua, bursting 

 and throwing its seeds. 

 (From Kerner.) 



Fig. 266. 



