August 16, 888. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
153 
ment of official record • (1841) has the latter amount been at 
all equalled. The greatest falls occurred in 1853, 1860, and 1879, 
when the amounts registered were respectively 8'23 inches, 8'60 inches, 
and 8 01 inches. The amount for the present year is of course increased 
by the unusual and excessive rain of July 30th, when 2 inches of rain 
fell within the short space of four hours, causing the floods and conse¬ 
quent damage of which we have heard so much. In June and July last 
year rain fell only on three days and ten days respectively ; there being 
26 days (June 6th to July 4th) absolutely without rain. In the samemonths 
of this year rain fell respectively on 15 days and 26 days. That is to 
say. out of 61 days rain fell last year on 13 days, and this year on 
41 days. 
A few words now on temperature. The mean temperature of the 
month of June last year was 60 9°, or U° above the average. 
This year it was 58'3°, or T5° below the average. That of July 
last year was 66'5°, or 3 - 9° above the average. This year it was 
57'9°, or 4’7° below the average, and no less than 8 6° below the 
value for last year. In June and July of last year the temperature 
rose above 80° on twenty-one daj's ; in the same months of this year 
only on three days—never, indeed, reaching 80° on any one day in 
July, the highest record for this month being 74°. July 11th and 12th of 
this year will be long remembered, the highest temperature reached on 
these days being 55° and 54° respectively : the mean temperature of the 
same days being respectively 15° and 13.)° below the average. 
These remarks apply, of course, primarily to the London district, 
although in general applicable to a larger extent of country. The 
figures given will show how extreme, so far 1 have been the meteorological 
conditions of the present summer, and how completely in contrast with 
the fine weather of the corresponding portion of last year. 
THE ROMANCE OF SEED-SOWING. 
(Continued from page 12G.') 
II.— Winds.—I n many w'ays we see the action of this second agent 
The simplest cases are those where the seeds (or their equivalents) are 
infinitesimally small, and of exceeding lightness. Thus, the spores of 
Fungi, Lichens, Mosses, and Ferns are easily carried by the wind to dis¬ 
tant places ; and so the members of some of the above named orders 
have an almost world-wide range. Some seeds of flowering plants are 
also light enough to be thus transported, or else they have some 
mechanical contiivance to render them so. One of our little Corn 
Salads (Valerianella auricula), whose fruit contains three cells, deve- 
lopes only one seed, the remaining two empty cells acting as a kind 
of balloon to the fruit, and most likely facilitating their movement by 
the wind. Then, again, there are seeds which are flat and very thin. 
Those of Yellow Rattle, a parasite on Meadow Grasses, afford an example. 
The wind shakes them out of their bladder-like capsule at ripening 
time, and carries them to a distance, where they find a congenial resting- 
place. 
Coming to more familiar and more easily seen contrivances we find 
the winged fruits and seeds known to most of us. Among winged fruits 
we have the keys or doubly winged fruits of Sycamore and Maple, the 
single one of Ash, and the well-known winged nuts (so called) of Birch 
and Elm, those of the latter covering the roads in April and early May. 
When the winged fruit is detached from the tree it falls slowly with a 
rotatory motion, and the wind, if enough be present, is sure to catch it 
and bear it away. Lime has no winged fruit, but the long, narrow 
bract at the base of the bunch of fruits serves the purpose. Watch a 
bunch of Lime fruit falling, and note that the fruits hang lowermost, 
the bract catching the wind and carrying the whole mass away—very 
often to some distance. Among plants also we find instances of winged 
fruits, as in Dock, Parsnip, and Penny Cress, the latter being, like others 
of its order, a winged pod or pouch containing the seeds. In the case of 
Pines it is the seed which is winged— i.e., it carries with it a portion of 
the scale to which it was formerly attached. So the tiny seeds of Arbor 
Vitae and Cypress in our gardens are surrounded by a thin membranous 
wing ; equally provided are those of the beautiful Trumpet Creeper, 
while the seeds of some Begonias are so delicately winged that they 
describe a series of circles in the air, hovering, so to speak, before they 
finally settle. There is one instance of a wind-wafted fruit which, 
although not winged, I may na,me here. I refer to the “Rose of 
Jericho,” a pod-bearing annual found in Syria and Egypt. Its pods, 
when dry, curl themselves up into a ball, and are driven, it may be, for 
miles along the ground by the wind until they happen on a damp place; 
there they stick, uncurl, open, and deposit their seeds. There is another 
case : a kind of Grass, in which the whole inflorescence, in the shape of 
a large round head, gets driven along the sands of Australia until it 
finds some moist spot where the plant can again take root and let fall 
its seeds. 
Still more complicated and beautiful than the wings already seen are 
the tufts of down seen on many fruits and seeds, and they serve a 
similar purpose. This down, which forms Dandelion “clocks” and 
Thistle “ blows,” consists either of simple hairs or those provided with a 
feathery arrangement. It may be found attached to either the fruit or 
the seed. In the latter it may cover only a part of the surface, or it 
may entirely envelope the seed. A tuft of hairs developed from the 
seed is usually called a coma, from a Latin word signifying “ hair.” 
As one example of such seeds we may select Willow Herb, whose rosy 
flowers fringe our river banks and ditches—plants almost always found 
in wet or marshy districts. Each seed is tufted with silky hairs, and 
the opening pod, containing several of these, is a very beautiful object 
We are all familiar with the cotton-like hairs that show the presence of 
the seeds on the numerous kinds of Willow trees in early spring or 
summer. Here the seed nestles amid an almost perfect envelope of 
hairs. The Asclepias, or American Milkweed, has seeds tufted at one 
end like those of our own Willow Herb. The cotton of commerce 
consists of long, hair-like cells from the seeds of Gossypium, the Cotton 
plant, one of the Mai vacem, or Mallow order. Each thread is really a 
cylindrical cell, often very long, which, when dried, flattens out and 
twists spirally. By this peculiar outline cotton can always be detected 
under the microscope. 
When the hairs form a tuft on the fruit, we speak of them collec¬ 
tively as a pappus, from a classical word signifying “ an old man,” in 
allusion to the grey colour. The ripe carpels or fruits of Pasque-flower 
Anemone and of wild Clematis are furnisned with a feathery tail, which 
is in reality the long style covered with silky hairs. The long, feathered, 
graceful fruits of Clematis festoon our hedges in autumn, and are known 
popularly as Old Man’s Beard or Traveller’s Joy, and are among the 
most lovely of our country sights. In the Red Valerian of our gardens, 
now wild in many places, the calyx unro Is, after flowering, in the shape 
of a feathery cap for the fruit, which can thus be easily carried about 
by the wind. If you examine a single fruit from the thick, dark-brown 
spike of Reed Mace or Bulrush (Typha), you will see that it ends below 
in a very delicate stalk, around which, at three or four different places, 
arise a series of circles of fine silvery hairs, which support the tiny fruit 
in the air. The softness of the spike is due to the presence of multi¬ 
tudes of fruits, each provided with these hair circles. 
The Cotton Grass of our moors is another example. Tt is not a true 
Grass at all, but is the genus Eriophorum, belonging to the Cyperaceae, 
or Sedges. Its fruits have a tuft of long, silky hairs springing from the 
base, and we often see a marshy landscape white with thousands of 
these hair-covered fruits. 
The pappus as an air-floating device, however, reaches the climax of 
beauty and adaptation in the Composite, the order including Thistle, 
Dandelion, and very many other plants. Examine a head of Dandelion 
early in its history, and you see nothing of any pappus ; but look at it 
later on, and jou will see in the place of the many florets that made up 
the so-called “ flower ” a spherical collection of beautiful hairs which 
form the “ clock ” of the children. Each single fruit is prolonged above 
into a long stalk or beak (very much longer than the fruit itself), at the 
top of which is a close-set circle of delicate hairs arranged laterally, so 
as to form a kind of parachute, concave above. This parachute bears 
up the fruit and acts as a sail for it, and being by far the lighter end of 
the whole, causes the fruit to fall to the ground in the best position for 
its burial—namely, with the fruit itself downward. Most assuredly 
this wonderful contrivance for dispersing the seeds is the reason why 
Dandelion is as common as it is. “ A common weed ! ’ we say. Exactly; 
and it is a common weed because it is a highly adapted type, as Grant 
Allen tells us. 
In the Hawkweeds—relations of Dandelion —the pappus is not 
raised on a beak, but is close down on the fruit, and is not so widely 
expanded, being more funnel-shaped. In Dandelion and Hawkweed 
the hairs are simple ; but in the Thrincia of our lawns (which some 
people will call Dandelion, but which is only a near relative), they are 
every one feathered. This is carried to the furthest point in Tragopo- 
gon, or Goat’s Beard, called “John Go-to-bed-at-noon ” by country folk, 
because it closes at mid-day. Here the hairs are not only feathery, but 
the feathery branches interlace all round the circle, so as to form a very 
powerful propeller under the influence of a breeze. All these contrb 
vances, whether found on fruit or seed, are evidently developed by 
natural selection, in order to the better dispersion of the life-containing 
germ.—H. W. S. Worsley Benison, F.L.S. (in the Journal of Micro¬ 
scopy). 
(To be continued.) 
HORTICULTURAL SHOWS. 
FROME.—August 6th. 
This was a decided success, and that too in spite of rather un¬ 
favourable weather. In the plant tent especially there was a marked 
all-round improvement observable, nothing but a few well-trained 
specimen flowering plants being wanted to make the exhibition equal to 
any held in Somerset and surrounding counties. 
The principal prizes were offered for banks of plants arranged on a 
space 12 feet by 6 feet. Of these there were no fewer than five com¬ 
petitors. Mr. W. Pratt, gardener to the Marquis of Bath, Longleat, was 
placed first with a rather heavy arrangement, which included numbers 
of choice Crotons, fine Palms, several large and well-flowered Eucharis 
amazonica, Ferns, and other plants. The second prize was awarded to 
Mr. W. Iggulden, gardener to the Earl of Cork, Marston House, for a 
much lighter arrangement, but which was scarcely imposing enough at 
the back. The bank was largely composed of elegant well-coloured 
Crotons, Pandanuses, Dracaenas, Palms, with Lilium auratum, Pancra- 
tiums, Orchids, and Tuberous Begonias springing out of a groundwork 
of Maidenhair Fern. The third prize was well won by Mr. E. Brown, 
gardener to C. Baily, Esq., Frome, and very creditable groups were also, 
arranged by Mr. Phillips, gardener to John Baily, Esq., Fairlawn, Frome, 
and Mr. S. Andrews, gardener to A. G. Hayman, Esq., Hapsford House, 
Frome. Mr. Pratt was placed first for six fine-foliaged plants, among which 
was a very fine Latania borbonica, the second prize going to Mr. Iggulden. 
