SEEDS TRANSPORTED BY WIND. 
31 
omitting the description of others which are ingeniously 
fitted in a great variety of different ways for traveling 
by water. 
18 . Tumbleweeds. — Incidentally, the foregoing pages 
contain some account of seeds and fruits that are carried 
by the aid of wind, in connection with their distribution 
by other methods ; but there are good reasons for giving 
other examples of seeds carried by the wind. There is a 
very common weed found on waste ground and also in 
fields and gardens, which on good soil, with plenty of 
room and light, grows much in the shape of a globe with 
a diameter of two to three feet. It is called Amaranthus 
aTbus in the books, and is one of the most prominent of our 
tumbleweeds. It does not start in the spring from seed 
till the weather becomes pretty warm. The leaves are 
small and slender, the flowers very small, with no display, 
and surrounded by little rigid, sharp-pointed bracts. When 
ripe in autumn, the dry, incurved branches are quite stiff ; 
the main stem near the ground easily snaps off and leaves 
the light ball at the mercy of the winds. Such a plant 
is especially at home on prairies or cleared fields, where 
there are few large obstructions and where the wind has 
free access. 
The mother plant, now dead, toiled busily during the 
heat of summer and produced thousands of little seeds. 
The best portion of her substance went to produce these 
seeds, giving each a portion of rich food for a start in life 
and wrapping each in a glossy black coat. Now she is 
