en balsam, when ripe, splits, at the least touch,
into five fleshy valves, which curl up and shoot their seeds to a
distance. The botanical name of _Impatiens_ given to the balsam alludes
to this sudden dehiscence of the capsules, which cannot endure contact
without bursting.

In the damp and shady places of the woods there exists a plant of the
same family which, for similar reasons, bears the even more expressive
name of _Impatiens noli-me-tangere_, or touch-me-not.

The capsule of the pansy expands into three valves, each scooped out like
a boat and laden in the middle with two rows of seeds. When these valves
dry, the edges shrivel, press upon the grains and eject them.

Light seeds, especially those of the order of Compositae, have aeronautic
apparatus--tufts, plumes, fly-wheels--which keep them up in the air and
enable them to take distant voyages. In this way, at the least breath,
the seeds of the dandelion, surmounted by a tuft of feathers, fly from
their dry receptacle and waft gently in the air.

Next to the tuft, the wing is the most satisfactory contrivance for
dissemination by wind. Thanks to their membranous edge, which gives them
the appearance of thin scales, the seeds of the yellow wall-flower reach
high cornices of buildings, clefts of inaccessible rocks, crannies in old
walls, and sprout in the remnant of mould bequeathed by the mosses that
were there before them.

The samaras, or keys, of the elm, formed of a broad, light fan with the
seed cased in its centre; those of the maple, joined in pairs and
resembling the unfurled wings of a bird; those of the ash, carved like
the blade of an oar, perform the most distant journeys when driven before
the storm.

Like the plant, the insect also sometimes possesses travelling-apparatus,
means of dissemination that allow large families to disperse quickly over
the country, so that each member may have his place in the sun without
injuring his neighbour; and these apparatus, these methods vie in
ingenuity with the elm's samara, the dandelion-plume and the catapult of
the squirting cucumber.

Let us consider, in particular, the Epeirae, those magnificent Spiders
who, to catch their prey, stretch, between one bush and the next, great
vertical sheets of meshes, resembling those of the fowler. The most
remarkable in my district is the Banded Epeira (_Epeira fasciata_,
WALCK.), so prettily belted with yellow, black and silvery white. Her
nest, a marvel o