Marvels of the Universe 



193 



seeds of the great willow-herb fall on the water, 

 they maj- germinate afloat and take root when 

 stranded. Of course, there are many other land 

 plants the seeds whereof, falling in the water, 

 float and may be transported to a suitable 

 resting-place ; but very few British species de- 

 velop special structures for flotation. The white 

 water-hly is one exception and the sedges furnish 

 others. The fruit of the water-lity is a large 

 berry, containing a number of small seeds. Each 

 seed is girt with a spongy belt containing air- 

 chambers. ^^'hen the berr\' bursts under water, 

 the seeds are borne up to the surface, and float 

 about until their hfebelts rot, when they fall to 

 the bottom of the water. In the sedges, the seed 

 is very- small, only- one-sixteenth of an inch long, 

 but it is cased in a sack four times as big, which 

 enables it to float until it arrives at a suitable 

 resting-place. 



The most notable instance of fruits special- 

 ized for floating is the important one of the 

 coconut. In this country we are only familiar 

 with it after it has been divested of its smooth 

 white skin, between which and the shell is packed 

 a dense mass of the exceedingly tough fibres 

 from which our coconut mats are made. This 

 envelope gives the nut sufficient buo\'ancy to 

 float for hundreds of miles, so that uninhabited 

 coral islands become colonized with this most 

 valuable food-plant. 



A still larger example of this type is found 

 in the Sea Coconut, or Double Coconut, of the 

 Seychelles, which, growing upon a lofty palm, 

 are washed out on the Indian Ocean as far as 

 the Maldive Islands. Until comparatively recent 

 times only the fruit was known from examples 

 picked up at sea by sailors, the tree producing it 

 being discovered much later. 



Plants which cannot, or at least do not, equip 

 their seeds either for flight or swimming, adopt 

 an extraordinary variety of expedients to secure 

 transport. Some of them actually educate their 

 seeds to creep along the ground. 



The common Stork' s-biU owes its popular 

 name to the long beak which forms in each 

 flower as the seeds ripen. These seeds are five 

 in number, each being armed with reflexed 

 bristles and having a long tail, or " awn," pro- 

 ceeding from the top. These awns form the 



ril«lr,.< hfl [II. Main, F.f:.S. 



FLOWERS AND FRUITS OF CRANE'S-BILL. 



The five seeds are contained in five pouches. As they 

 ripen the central pillar splits into five strips, and these, curl- 

 ing up, lift the pouches into the air until they are upside 

 down, when the seeds drop out. 



