ADAPT A TION 
3 
one hand, while you hold it with the other. You place the 
cap on the top of the pen, the fingers exerting just the right 
pressure in removing it and forcing it on the pen. Then 
you take the pen in your right hand and start to write. 
The pen point is moved in the proper direction to make 
letters, forming accurate loops and curves because the hand 
has been trained to make these lines as you wish. It has 
become especially adapted to do this work. 
You write a page and take a blotter and press it upon the 
freshly written word. The hand is just the thing to use for 
this work. Suppose you 
make a mistake and wish 
to erase it. An ink eraser 
which you hold with your 
fingers you move back 
and forth with the proper 
force and without tearing 
the paper. Suggest other 
ways in which the hand is 
adapted to the work of 
writing. Think of the 
hand of a violinist as it 
rapidly moves over the 
strings, pressing at the 
right place at the right 
time. This is the work of a wonderfully adapted hand. 
The human hand is the best example of varied adaptations 
that we know of. 
Did you ever think of the seeds of the maple tree that grow 
large winglike vanes on the side? The wind carries these 
seeds away from the parent tree and thus -they have a better 
chance to grow. The dandelion has downy tufts on a 
stem that grows up from the seed coat and carries the 
seed miles away from the place where the parent plant 
grew. 
The different “seeds” in this picture 
are all distributed by wind. What are 
the various devices shown on these seeds 
which enables the wind to carry them ? 
