HOME PLANTS ANT) THEIR WAYS'. 7 



ctical. A small circular fungus squats clown on a nice bit 

 of turf ; it prospers, and fills with ripening seed ; when it 

 matures, it discharges the tiny balls already mentioned in 

 a circle all around, and then sinks quietly in the ground 

 and dies. Another season, and its place is marked by an 

 abundance of luxuriant grass, feeding upon its remains, 

 while around it a whole ring of young fungi have begun to 

 flourish. They die in their turn, and so the circle goes on 

 enlarging and enlarging, shifting rapidly, because the fungi 

 exhaust the soil soon of all matter necessary for their 

 growth, and closely followed by the rich grass that fills up 

 their place and prevents them from ever retracing their 

 steps. 



4. A similar irritability enables other plants also to scat- 

 ter their seeds far and near, by means of springs bent back, 

 until a breath of wind, a falling leaf, or the wing of an in- 

 sect, causes them to rebound, and thus to send the pollen 

 with which they are loaded often to a great distance. The 

 so-called touch-me-not balsam scatters its ripe seeds, by 

 such a contrivance, in all directions, and the squirting cu- 

 cumber is furnished, for the same purpose, with a complete 

 fire-engine. Some of the geraniums, also, of our green- 

 houses have their fruit-vessels so curiously constructed 

 that the mere contact with another object, and frequently 

 the heat of the sun alone, suffices to detach the carpels, one 

 by one, with a snapping sound, and so suddenly as to cause 

 a considerable jerk, which sends the seeds far away. 



5. Other fruit-vessels, again, have, as is well known, 

 contrivances the most curious and ingenious by which 

 they press every living thing that comes near them into 

 their service, and make it convey them whithersoever they 

 please. Everybody is familiar with the bearded varieties 

 of wheat and other grain ; they are provided with the little 

 hooks which they cunningly insert into the wool or hair of 

 grazing cattle, and thus they are carried about until they 



