SEEDS TRAN SPOUTED BY WIND. 
41 
Asia, and North America, is a common plant here known 
as great willow-herb, a kind of fireweed (. Epilobium 
angustifolium). There are several kinds of fireweeds. 
This one grows from three to five feet high, and bears 
pretty pink flowers. In mellow soil 
the slender rootstocks spread exten- 
sively, and each year new sprouts 
spring up all around, six to eight feet 
distant. Below each flower ripens a 
long, slender pod, which splits open 
from the top into four parts, that 
slowly curve away from a central col- 
umn. The apex of each seed is pro- 
vided with a cluster of white silky 
hairs nearly half an inch long. 
The tips of the hairs stick slightly 
to the inside of the recurved valves, 
some hairs to one valve, and often 
others to the adjacent valve, thus 
spreading them apart with the seed 
suspended between. Four rows of the 
seeds are thus held out at one time. 
Often not over half, or even a tenth 
part, of the seeds are well developed, yet 
the silky hairs are present and float away in clusters, thus 
helping to buoy those that are heavy. This is a capital 
scheme, for when the pods are dry and unfrirled, they 
silently indicate to the slightest breath of air that they 
Fig. 30. — Fruit of willow- 
herb exposing seeds for 
distribution by the wind. 
