18 879] Seeds of Plants as Projectiles, — 93 
ornaments them, ona if the fictile art has originated with her, and 
has grown up under her hands, it seems no less probable that the 
ornaments she uses should have originated with her, and the 
probability is increased by the fact that to, her falls the work of 
spinning and weaving, of making and decorating personal orna- 
ments and clothes, and of making baskets, mats, etc. She is 
everywhere the primitive decorative artist, and to-day it is the 
exception that man occupies himself with ornamental art, even in 
civilized countries. Woman covers with ornament. everything 
her hand touches, and the lady in her boudoir industriously 
embroiders, on some article of mere luxury, the same series of 
frets and scroll borders that, on the Amazonas, the savage 
unclothed squaw as diligently and with as firm a hand, traces 
with a spine on the damp surface of the clay vessel she is fashion- 
ing. It is as if they both sang the same simple song. The orna- 
ments in both cases are identical and not only of wholly inde- 
pendent origin, but it may be also of very different age. Those 
of the savage are the mere embryonic beginnings of art-life, while 
those of the boudoir, like the ZLimgu/e of to-day, are archaic 
forms, persistent through the ages, still flourishing unchanged 
among the varied wealth of derivatives by evolution from the 
ancient primary forms. 
MO cae eared 
SEEDS OF THE VIOLET AND OTHER PLANTS AS 
PROJECTILES. 
BY MOSES N. ELROD, M.D. 
HE capsules of the cleistogenous flowers of Viola cucullata, ee 
canadensis and V. striata, by a peculiar mechanical movement 
of the valves project their seeds from a few inches to four or five 
feet. As V, cucullata is a very common plant, with numerous 
seed pods in the latter part of the season, it has been most care- 
fully studied, and will be the first described. When the seeds are 
ripe, the pod that before had been folded back on its crooked 
procumbent stem, becomes erect, opens into three valves that 
place themselves at right angles with the straightened and erected 
peduncle, and, as it were, look directly upwards. By straighten- 
ing the peduncle, the seed vessels that heretofore had been con- 
cealed, are brought on a level with or above the leaves. Each 
one of the carinate valves contains from three to four rows of 
