182 THE BEHAVIOUR OF PLANTS 
how these same short stems will grow much longer 
just as the seeds are ready to be scattered, so that they 
are lifted above the grass where the wind may catch 
hold of them easily. Put a stake by some flowers and 
measure the stems. ‘Then measure them every day 
while the seeds are ripening. Along the roadsides or 
in undisturbed places the flower stems are often longer 
than those on the lawn. Do these long stems lengthen 
as the seeds ripen ? 
The goat’s beard and prickly oxtongue, found in fields 
and along the roadsides, have seeds very much like 
those of the dandelion. 
The virgin’s bower, or clematis. The clematis, or 
virgin’s bower, is quite as attractive In appearance 
in the autumn as in the summer when it is in flower. 
The great masses of foliage and vines clambering over 
fences and shrubs, and often hiding them entirely, 
show numerous white puffs of feathery seeds where 
the flower once was. Each of the seeds is like an 
arrow-headed plume. Blow or scatter 
some of them to the wind and see them 
scudding off to the ground in curious 
spiral courses. 
gat ae ae Winged seeds. Some seeds have wing- 
ee like expansions on the side and are called 
winged seeds. They, too, are carried by the wind, but 
they are not quite so buoyant as the seeds of the 

