those of cat's-tail, dandelion, and most of the
thistle kind have long numerous feathers by
which they are wafted every way. The cotton-
grass is supplied with so much of this feathery
material that it gives a character to the fields in
which it grows. Mrs. S. C. Hall said she saw
scores of bogs in Ireland looking like fields of
snow from the immense quantity of cotton-
grass down with which it is covered. Hedges
in which the traveller's-joy is abundant have
a beautiful appearance at seed time, owing to
the silvery plume appearing on the fruit.

The wind is especially useful in wafting the
minute, impalpable sporules of cryptogamic
plants to considerable distances. It has been
supposed that two species of lichen found on
the coasts of Bretagne have been brought
thither from Jamaica by the prevalence of the
south-west wind. This is easily explained by
the lightness and minuteness of these seeds,
some of which are mere dust, while those of
the club-moss are but the eighteen thousandth
of an inch in thickness. On the 29th of
August, 1830, a lichen suddenly appeared among
a plantation of pines in the neighbourhood of
Dresden, covering the leaves only, however, on
the side nearest to the wind; and at another
time the sails of a ship at sea, near Stockholm,
were in an instant covered with a sort of lichen.
This appearance, which has been explained by
supposing that the minute germs came floating
invisibly upon the breeze, is said to be common
in Persia, Armenia, and Tartary, where the people
eagerly eat the lichens, saying that they come
from heaven.

Other seeds are scattered, not by flying about,
but by being spurted or darted away by the
plant itself. The wood-sorrel has its seed-vessel
constructed in such a way that, when dry, it
bursts open, and in a moment is violently turned
inside out. When oats are ripe, the grains are
thrown from the flower-cup with a crackling
noise, which may be heard in passing near an oat-
field on a fine dry day. In the succulent fruit of
the squirting cucumber, the cells of which it is
composed vary in their size and contents in
different parts; and some containing thick
matter, becoming distended at the expense of
others with thinner matter, the force of endosmose
ultimately causes rupture of the valves
at their weakest point—that is to say, where they
join the stem. When this takes place, the
elasticity of the valves sends out the seeds and
fluid contents with great force through the
opening made by the separation of the stalk. If
the touch-me-not balsam is touched it instantly
fires a discharge of seeds at the intruder, by the
five valves of the seed-vessel curving inwards in
a spiral manner, in consequence of the distention
of the outer large cells. Grew says " the
seeds of heart's-tongue is flung or shot away by
the curious contrivance of the seed-case as in
codded asmart, only there the spring moves and
curls inward, and here outward, viz. every seed-
case is of a spheric figure and girded about with
a sturdy spring. The surface of this spring re-
sembles a fine screw, and so soon as this spring
is become stark enough, it suddenly breaks the
case in two halves like two little cups, and so
lings the seed." Spencer Thomson, in his book
on Wild Flowers, says many must have remarked
this fact for themselves, when, under the heat of
a July sun, their wanderings have led them
through some

Path with tangling furze o'errun,
When bursting seed-bells crackle in the sun,

and they have wondered what could be the meaning
of the incessant crack, crack, which seems
momentarily to occur on every side, as if some
fairy folk were firing feu de joie to celebrate
;he fine weather. Verily, too, the tiny soldiers,
whoever they be, seem to have loaded with
something more than powder, for, after each crack,
the attentive ear might catch the sound as of
dropping shot among the leaves. At last the
eye detects one of the black pods of the broom
or of the gorse in the very act of firing; in one
moment each pod-valve has twisted itself into a
spiral, and sent its seeds, the fairy projectiles,
scattering all around. And thus there is an
explanation of the fairy fusillade, but we find out
that spring-guns are in use in Flora's kingdom
instead of Minié rifles.

Derham, in his Physico-Theology, says the
plants of the ginger family may be added here
to those whose pods fly open and dart out their
seed upon a small touch of the hand.

Moisture, as well as dryness, operates in the
bursting of seed-vessels. The pod of the Rose
of Jericho is so striking an example of this, that
we must quote an account of it which appeared in
Household Words (vol. xvii. page 341): " This
little plant, scarcely six inches high, after the
lowering season, loses its leaves, and dries up
into the form of a ball. In this condition it is
uprooted by the winds, and is carried, blown or
tossed, across the desert into the sea. When
the wee rose feels the contact of the water, it
unfolds itself, expands its branches, and expels
its seeds from their seed-vessels. The seeds,
after having become thoroughly saturated with
sea-water, are carried by the tide and laid upon
the sea-shore. From the sea-shore the seeds are
blown back again into the desert, where, sprouting
roots and leaves, they grow into fruitful
plants, which will in their turns, like their
ancestors, be whirled into the sea." Dr. Sloane,
in his Voyage to Jamaica, gives an account
of a plant which he calls the Spirit Leaf. He
says: " The admirable contrivance of Nature in
this plant is most plain. For the seed-vessels
being the best preserver of the seed is there kept
from the injuries of air and earth, till it be
rainy, when it is a proper time for it to grow,
and then it is thrown round the earth, as grain
by a skilful sower. When any wet touches the
end of the seed-vessel, with a smart noise and a
sudden leap it opens itself, and with a spring
scatters its seed to a pretty distance round it,
where it grows."

Nature has several other methods of planting
adapted to individual peculiarities. The screw-
like appendages of the crane's-bill seeds assist
to roll them to some clink in the earth, and then