screw them into it. The poppy has little pores
at the summit of the seed-cup; and the pimpernel
splits off a little lid and discloses its well-
hoarded treasury, while the cross-flowers, like
the wallflower, quietly lift up their sides to let
the seeds fall. The willow herbs open elegantly
at the top to permit their beautifully arranged
and winged germs to take their flight. The ivy-
leaved toad-flax carefully buries its seed. The
subterraneous clover, as the time for planting
approaches, surrounds the seed-vessel with spiny
projections, which protect the germs while digging
their way down into the soil. The mignionette
seed escapes easily by the little bell in
which they are contained opening and permitting
them to fall as they are perfected.

There are several physical circumstances
favourable to nature planting, such as the weight
which increases at the same time as the power
of holding on diminishes, and the shaking of the
wind or the beating of the rain.

Seas, rivers, and currents are among the
most effectual means of dispersing the seeds
of plants. Monsieur Charles Martin, Professor
of Botany at the Montpellier Faculty of Medicine,
in a letter to Monsieur Flourens, communicated
to the Academy of Sciences, states that,
after experimenting upon a great variety of
seeds taken haphazard, he finds that two-thirds
of them float upon the sea; thus explaining
how seeds which Humboldt said must have
been borne by plants and trees in Jamaica and
Cuba, are thrown on the shores of the Hebrides.
The Gulf Stream is supposed to be the principal
agent in the diffusion of European plants in
the islands of Shetland, Feroe, and Iceland.
Many seeds growing near the sea-shore, like
the cocoa-nuts of the tropics, are washed away
by the waves and carried by the currents, until,
becoming heavy and saturated with sea-water,
they are left to germinate on far-distant coasts
and newly formed islands.

Sea-weeds produce their seeds in a strange
manner, assuming rather the character of animals
than of plants. The seeds are crowded together
in cells on the tough leaf of the plant. These
extremely minute seeds are surrounded with
little hairs gifted with vibratory motion, which
in due time, when the cell bursts, row each seed
away to a proper resting-place. An old observer,
Dr. Tancred Robinson, says the sudden emptying
of the bags of seed causes a great commotion
of the water in their neighbourhood; and the
departure of the flocks appears to take place at
fixed periods, generally betimes in the morning;
one sea-weed choosing the hour of eight, and
another daybreak.

Animals, even, are to a great extent employed
by Nature to assist her in her planting.
Seeds often become entangled in their hair and
wool; the seeds of agrimony being thus
disseminated by sheep. The hooks of the burdock
cling to the passing animal, and are carried
often miles away. All sorts of animals, including
monkeys, squirrels, mice, and birds, carry
away, and sometimes hide, seeds, either
voluntarily or involuntarily, to serve as food. Gilbert
White says, "Many horse-beans sprang up in my
field-walks in the autumn, and are now grown
to a considerable height. As the Ewel was in
beans last summer, it is most likely that these
seeds came from thence; but then the distance
is too considerable for them to have been
conveyed by mice. It is most probable, therefore,
that they were brought by birds, and, in
particular, by jays and pies, who seem to have hid
them among the grass and moss, and then to
have forgotten where they had stowed them.
Some peas are growing also in the same situation,
and probably under the same circumstances."

But more especially those seeds which are
furnished with hard bony coverings to the kernel
(as in stone fruit), and are capable of resisting
the digestive action of the juice of the stomach,
are conveyed by animals in a state fitted for
germination. Among our native plants there
are the cherry, sloe, haw, and mistletoe, whose
seeds are eaten by birds with the pulp. Indeed,
the ancient naturalists generally agree in thinking
that the mistletoe can only be propagated
by its seeds being carried about by, and passing
through the bodies of, birds.

Sir T. Pope Blunt, in his Natural History,
remarks: "Nutmegs are said to be fertilised
after the same manner as Tavernier saith was
confirmed to him by persons that lived many
years in those parts, whose relation was, ' The
nutmeg being ripe, several birds come from the
islands towards the south, and devour it whole,
but are forced to throw it up again, before it is
digested. That the nutmeg, then besmeared
with a viscous matter, falling to the ground,
takes root, and produces a tree which would
never thrive was it planted.' " And M.
Thèvenot, in his Travels to the Indies, gives this
account: "The tree is produced after this manner.
There is a kind of birds in the island, that,
having picked off the green husk, swallow the
nuts, which, having been some time in their
stomach, they void by the ordinary way; and
they fail not to take root in the place where they
fall, and in time to grow up to a tree. This
bird is shaped like a cuckoo, and the Dutch
prohibit their subjects, under pain of death, to kill
any of them."

Ivy berries afford a noble and providential
supply for birds in winter and spring, says
Gilbert White, for the first severe frost freezes
and spoils all the haws, sometimes by the middle
of November; but ivy berries do not seem to
freeze. And Mr. R. C. Norman remarks that
the seeds of ivy are not in general found to grow
well, however carefully planted; while that
which is self-sown, or sown by birds, under trees
and walls, will grow abundantly; from which
fact it has been supposed that such mucilaginous
seeds require to be passed through some
digestive process to render them fruitful.

Yet, notwithstanding, a great many seeds
escape all these influences, and either wither or
rot, or are totally destroyed by insects.

However, Nature has ensured the preservation
of many vegetable species by the truly astonishing