126 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
f Angnst 9, 1888. 
Mr. Fred. Horsman of Colchester, and was one of the most handsome 
we have seen ; the colour a delicate mauve and rich blue.] 
THE ROMANCE OF SEED-SOWING. 
Every country child knows the appearance of a “ Dandelion-clock, ’ 
and has tried to “ see what o’clock it is ” by the number of puffs needed 
to blow away the round head of soft down at the top of the flower-stalk 
in autumn. ' Equally familiar is the smaller tuft of grey down on 
Groundsel after flowering, although most people do not know that the 
botanical name of Groundsel is Senecio, from the Latin senex. an old 
man, given to it on account of the colour of this down. Most of us can 
recollect the innumerable tufts of similar material flying all over 
a Thistle field long after butterfly and bee have done their work 
among the purple flowers. We have all seen Sycamore “ keys ” strewing 
the ground in June and July, and brown Ash keys” persistent on the 
parent tree when October winds have blown nearly every leaf from its 
hold. The bonnie autumn berries in our woods, and the fruits of Black¬ 
berry and Strawberry have been gathered by children of younger and 
older growth many a time and oft. How many of us ever stay to in¬ 
quire why Groundsel and Thistle possess their downy tufts, why Ash 
and Sycamore produce their “ keys,” or why many of the trees and 
plants are dressed in fruiting time with crimson and scarlet, purple and 
olive 1 Not only in order to the uses we make of them, we may be quite 
sure. “ Dandelion globes ” and “ Thistledown blows ” do not exist only 
to tell the time of day to a four-year-old child, or “ he loves me —he 
loves me not ” to the maiden of seventeen. Ash and Sycamore have 
“ keys ” for some other purpose than to form graceful, drooping clusters 
in June. The fruits and berries are not solely for decoration and 
digestion by human gatherers. Were these their only reasons for exist¬ 
ence that would soon terminate in all probability. All these, and 
many others that we could name, gladden and delight us in various 
ways, as do the flowers that come before each one of them ; but, as with 
the flowers, so with down-tuft and “ key,” berry and fruit ; they all 
have their several missions to perform, in order to perpetuate the very 
existence of their species, and to hold their own in the battle of life. 
Acknowledging that while they last, they are, in a thousand forms and 
ways, beautifuliand useful, I wish to try to show the definite uses of these 
“ common things,” and of some curious and wonderful contrivances to 
be found in plant life all around us. To come to the subject matter of 
this lengthy introduction, let us look for awhile at the various methods 
by which, either through external agency or intrinsic power, trees and 
plants manage to disperse their seeds, and to secure for their offspring a 
suitable home, and a fit and proper environment. 
The first question that naturally arises in many minds will probably 
be, Why try to scatter or disperse them at all ? Why not let them take 
their chance, and simply fall to the ground immediately underneath the 
tree, shrub, or annual, as the case may be, there to germinate and grow 
up into their parents’ likeness ? This is quite easily answered. In the 
case of trees, if all the seeds fell round about the trunk they would 
stand a poor chance, for if they ever germinated at all, the young 
seedlings would get very little sun, and a great deal too much over¬ 
shadow, and would be further harmed by the “ drip, drip,” from the 
branches. In the case of both trees and plants, moreover, the large 
quantity of young plants would choke one another in the struggle for 
life ; indeed, this not seldom occurs with some of our garden annuals, 
as we can easily prove for ourselves. Again, many plants soon exhaust 
the earth of certain mineral materials, and if their seedlings attempted 
to grow in the same soil, they would fail, the parent p'ant having used 
up the chief portion of such substances. 
A parallel to this is found in the fact that farmers do not grow the 
same kind of plant for successive seasons in the same field, but vary the 
sort from year to year, choosing plants that draw different materials 
from the soil in consecutive years. “ Rotation of crops ” we call it, but 
it is not our own invention. We took centuries to find it out. The 
plants and trees knew of it long ages ago, and so were led to develope 
the various methods of ensuring a speedy and effectual transit of their 
.seeds to other and better soil, where they might find their needed foods 
*n rich abundance. Of course, in certain cases—notably of some very 
s mall annuals, whose roots practically exhaust the soil but little—their 
seedlings find a good position at once, and manage to flourish ; those 
growing on sloping grassy downs or cliffs, too, stand a better chance, 
inasmuch as their seeds fall on ground at a lower level than that drawn 
on by the parent plant. Examples of this are seen in our wild Snap¬ 
dragons, Wallflowers, and others growing in such profusion on railway 
banks or on sloping limestone cliffs. For the most part, however, those 
plants flourish best that develope tendencies that tell in the direction of 
effectual dispersion of their seeds. 
I must not omit mention of one thing before detailing the methods 
of dispersion. Seeds must not be scattered until they are “ ripe ” and 
ready to set up their own independent existence. Hence we find all 
sorts of devices for protection of seeds during their growthT Some are 
enclosed in a thick, hard shell, such as Hazel Nut, Beech Nut, Spanish 
Chestnut, Cocoa Nut, Monkey Pot, and many others. Some are hidden 
away under overlapping wooden scales, such as the cones of Firs and 
their allies. Some are surrounded by thick fleshy coats, such as Horse 
Chestnut, Almond, Apple, Cherry, and the like. Walnut has a covering 
which is not only tough, but bitter to the taste. Mjicuna, one of the 
Leguminosse, has its pod covered with stinging hairs. Some have the 
calyx closed over the ripening seeds, as Winter Cherry, Strawberry¬ 
headed Trefoil, Herb Robert, and some others of the same order. The 
wild Rose fruits nestle inside the liollowed-out flower stalk which forms 
the hip, whose scarlet colour stands out in beautiful relief on the bushes 
in September and October. Many Clovers have the withered corolla for 
a covering to their seed-containing pod, and perhaps no plant better 
knows how to protect its progeny than Gorse, whose hair-covered pods 
defy wind, storm, and insect, until the seeds are fully ripe and ready to> 
be scattered by the burst of the pods in the August sunshine. 
Finally, there are some plants which by movement insure protection. 
The little Linaria of our rockeries and walls—“ Mother of Thousands,” 
as West-country folk call it, revels in sunshine, but as soon as it is 
fertilised, it pushes itself into some cranny or nook, hiding its seeds 
away until they are ripe. Dandelion keeps its stalk bolt upright during 
the three or four days of flower expansion, but it bends down close to 
the earth, and buries its flowers among the grass for ten or twelve days 
while the seeds are getting ripe, afterwards becoming erect once more, 
for a reason which we shall presently consider. Now let us see what 
are the agencies by which seeds are sent or carried on their journeys. 
There are four chief ones, besides one or two m:nor methods seen in 
only a few instances. We will take the four principal ones first of all. 
I. —Water. —Under this hjad I include the action of rivers and 
ocean currents. Comparatively few seeds are carried by water, owing 
to their being, as a rule, unable to withstand prolonged immersion ; but 
it is still true that the agency of water is a very important one, espe¬ 
cially in the form of marine currents. Many seeds are small and light 
enough to need no further adaptation ; but in the case of the larger 
kinds they must not only be able to answer to the law governing floating 
bodies, too well known to quote here, but they must also be absolutely 
impermeable to water itself. The Cocoa Nut rind is woody and fibrous. 
Hence these fruits can easily withstand the action of sea water and 
protect the seed within. They may be carried for thousands of miles 
over the sea, and yet when stranded the seeds can readily germinate. 
In this way we account for the wide range of this Palm and its presence 
on the main coral islands of the Pacific. Many seeds and fruits have 
thus been carried by the great current of the Gulf Stream from Mexico- 
to the marshes on Ireland’s western coast, to the lakes of the Hebrides, 
and to the Norway coast. Others have gone by currents from Madeira 
to the Canaries and thence to the African borders. 
Rivers again act in a similar manner. Seeds and fruits are brought 
down from the mountainous districts and deposited among the level 
plains and grassy meadows, and thus we can easily account for the pre¬ 
sence of such species in what seem to us strange habitats for them. 
Both in marine currents and in rivers the action of water in carrying 
seeds to any purpose is most effectual when the direction is from W. to 
E., or the opposite, because then the seeds are kept pretty much within 
the same latitude and therefore in similar climates. Hence they will 
grow and flourish where they eventually settle as well as they did in 
their former home. Currents going from N. to S. or S. to N. take them, 
into unfavourable surroundings, and then they mostly perish. 
Some seeds are specially fitted for water transit by the presence of 
air bladders variously developed— e.g., those of Water Lily. Others have 
a smooth rind with an oily juice, such as those of Arrow Head (Sagit- 
taria), of our water ditches. This peculiarity is, of course, of advantage 
in swampy and marshy districts, where the water dries up in warm 
weather, and the courses of the current vary so much.—H. W. S. 
Worsley Beetson, F.L.S. (in the Journal of Microscopy'). 
(To be continued.) 
THE COMMERCIAL REALISATION OF FRUIT. 
{Continued from page 105.) 
EXPORTATION OF FRUITS TO THE COLONIES AND INDIA. 
The systematic packing of fruits, coupled with the practice of refri¬ 
geration, provides facilities that would enable them to be profitably 
shipped to the Australian and other markets of the world. The same 
appliances and means by which fruit can be successfully brought from 
the Antipodes can be employed in conveying it there. The steam vessels- 
that bring home meats do not utilise their refrigerating machinery on 
the voyage out, and doubtless they would be pleased to do so. Our fruits, 
if shipped, would reach there at a time when the colonists have no fruit 
of their own, and they would readily purchase the consignments. The 
railways of the different colonies run from all the principal ports to the 
interior, and reach about 500 stations, most at bush towns, where little 
or no fruits are grown or otherwise obtainable. An organised export 
trade could be profitably carried on for six weeks or two months in each 
year, when our fruits are abundant. Fruits in quantity, properly packed, 
could be put on board the outgoing vessels at Tilbury Docks from the 
Medway at from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per ton. Fruits shipped in refrigerators- 
can be insured against all risks—and therefore can be dealt with upon 
the ordinary commercial basis—that enables financial arrangements to- 
be completed and carried out in connection with shipping documents. 
EVAPORATED AND DRIED FRUITS. 
Dried fruits are those from which the moisture has been extracted by 
exposure to the sun, are well known in our markets, and have been, 
largely imported for a very long time ; these include raisins, Currants, 
Figs, Prunes, Plums, Normandy Pippins, French Pears, American Apples, 
Ac. The drying of fruits has not been attempted in England on a com¬ 
mercial scale, but frequently fruits have been allowed to remain and dry 
on the trees, owing to their value as at present dealt with being insuffi- 
