III.] SEEDS THROWN BY GERANIUMS. 57 



of these two species. Viola canina is a plant with an 

 elongated stalk, and it is easy therefore for the capsule 

 to raise itself above the grass and other low herbage 

 among which violets grow. 



V. odorata and V. hirta, on the contrary, have, in 

 ordinary parlance, no stalk, and the leaves are radical, 

 i.e. rising from the root. This is at least the case in 

 appearance, for, botanically speaking, they rise at the 

 end of a short stalk. Now, under these circumstances, 



Fig. 40. — Viola canina. Seed vessel after ejecting the seed. 



if the Sweet Violet attempted to shoot its seeds, the 

 capsules not being sufficiently elevated, the seeds 

 would merely strike against some neighbouring leaf, 

 and immediately fall to the ground. Hence, I think, 

 we see that the arrangement of the capsule in each 

 species is that most suitable to the general habit of 



the plant. 



In the true Geraniums again, as, for instance, in the 

 Herb Robert (Fig. 41), after the flower has faded, the 

 central axis gradually elongates (Fig. 41, a, c, d). The 



