814 Means of Plant Dispersion. [August, | 
away the masses of fruit they enclose. And the large membra- 
naceous and inflated pod of the bladder-nut (S/ephylea trifolia), a 
common shrub in rich open woods, is a kind of natural balloon, 
readily made the sport of the wind. 
As attachments to the end of fruits some good examples are 
found in the Ranunculus family, in the tailed fruits of Clematis 
and Anemone patens. The autumnal beauty of the virgin's 
bower (Clematis virginiana) when these white plumes are fully 
formed, quite equals that of its profusion of white blossoms in the 
summer, and exceeds it in interest. Beauty and utility aie here 
combined in the plan for dispersion by the wind. ` And one 
hardly knows which to admire most, the broad purple eye of the 
pasque flower (Anemone patens) dotting the prairies and hillsides 
of the North in early spring, or its head of fruit, white with feath- 
ery tails, seen ata later day. Some of the humbler anemones, 
such as A. caroliniana, cylindrica and virginiana, with fruit thickly 
clothed in matted wool, are well provided with means of disper- 
sion by wind agency. , 
But the best contrivance for this mode of spreading is the 
downy or feathery attachment to fruits, called pappus. Morpho- 
logically it is a modified calyx; this, adhering to the ovary, rises 
above it in a tuft of hairs or some kindred form in the place of 
sepals. Its prevalence in the numerous genera of the great order : 
Composite is a marked characteristic of these plants. In some, 
as Aster, Solidago, Erigeron, Vernonia, it is so short as not to be — 
very efficient for conveyance to any distance, though it furnishes 4 
considerable aid, and must not be passed by as unimportant Its 
most remarkable development is in the dandelion, thistle, fire-weed 
(Erechthites), Lactuca and Sonchus. Generally it consists of ae : 
copious tuft of hairs attached to the top of the achenium, and o 
radiating so as to forma spheric or hemispheric mass. SOM® 
times, as in the dandelion, the calyx tube is prolonged into a Supe n 
when the fruit matures. This, dividing and spreading at the Pe 
makes a globular head of hairs. That a downy head ike 
serves its purpose well will be affirmed by all who, on 4 seas we : 
y, have seen the air in the vicinity of a luxuriant growth o 
thistles filled with their light forms of fruit speeding away te 
tant fields. Far as the eye can discern them they may heise : 
each with its tiny freight of fruit. Rivers and lakes, forests, hills 
and mountains do not offer an insurmountable barrier to thet 
