630 Marvels of the Universe 
Photo by] [S. L. Bastin. 
WINGED SEEDS. 
The Ash produces its fruit in “keys,’’ a bunch of 
long green wings, each carrying a single seed. 
Photo by) LE. Step, F.L.S. 
WINGED SEEDS. 
In the Sycamore the seeds are in pairs, and are carried 
by a pair of wings, 
general impression conveyed by the Swiss variety. 
The tracery on window-panes is more familiar to 
us in England, and in that also we can discern the 
crystallized form always taken by the vapour of 
water when it freezes. 
In Tyndall’s “Forms of Water” the magic 
circle of snowflake—ice—water—vapour—can be 
followed out. Under “ Atomic Poles” he tells us 
how every tiny crystal which floats in mist—or, 
rather, into which at a certain temperature mist 
resolves itsel{—possesses two magnetic poles. One 
repels and the other attracts. As they lightly drift 
about, the attractive poles come together and the 
repellent poles retreat from each other. If pieces 
of ice are floating in water, when they touch each 
other they freeze together. Similarly, on a glacier, 
when the gentler slopes at the foot of an ice-fall 
are reached, crevasses close up. The ice now begins 
to present a uniform surface, for the same natural 
law is at work as that which binds the particles of 
hoar-frost which have been brought together by 
magnetic attraction, though, of course, in the case 
of a glacier the ice is brought in contact by other 
means. 
The tiny magnetic rods, sorted in a six-sided 
pattern by attraction and repulsion, are, as it 
were, cemented together by regelation, though the 
simile must not be strained, for they actually 
grow together as one flower. Regelation, or re- 
freezing, is produced by pressure. Pressure actually 
melts ice, and directly the pressure is removed the 
ice freezes again. Now picture two sides of a 
crevasse pressed together, as the glacier which has 
been strained, distended and cracked over a steep 
bed reaches more even ground. First the pressure 
melts the surfaces as they come into contact, but 
afterwards, as the great body of ice settles down 
into an unbroken stream, the pressure passes away 
from special points and everything is again a 
uniform frozen mass. 
With the petals of the Ice Flowers, if one may 
so describe these frozen, floating, magnetized 
atoms, the same thing occurs. They lock them- 
selves together at the last moment with an 
appreciable velocity, and latent heat is freed 
which melts their surfaces as they come in contact. 
But the pressure ceases once they are united, and 
they freeze together. Thus we see exemplified, 
even in these fragile children of the mist, the 
