thers at the top of the slender support attached
to the seed-like fruit below spreads out, and the community, which
now looks like a white ball of down, is ready for a breeze. The feathery
top is now ready to act as a parachute, and invites the wind to catch
up the whole and float it away. If there is no breeze, the moist air
of night closes the outer scales; each of the feathery tips closes,
and all are secure till the next bright day.

Of a like nature are fruits of thistles, fireweed, prickly lettuce,
sow thistles, scabiosa, valerian, cat-tail flag, cotton grass, some
anemones, smoke tree, virgin's bower, and some of the grasses.

27. How the lily sows its seeds.--Ripened pods of lilies usually stand
straight up on a stiff, elastic stem; beginning at the top, each one
slowly splits into three parts, which gradually separate from each
other. Why do they not burst open all of a sudden, like pea pods,
and shoot the seeds all about and have the job done with? Or why does
not the pod burst open at the lower end first, instead of the upper?

[Illustration: FIG. 33.--At the left a dry fruit of a lily opening
to permit seeds to dry and the wind to enter; to the right, a fruit
later in the season. Two views of a flat seed.]

Observe that the three opening cells are lashed together loosely with
a latticework. No slight breeze can dislodge the seeds, but just see
how they behave in a good gale! The elastic stems are swayed back
and forth against each other, and some of the upper seeds are tossed
out by the wind that passes through the lattice, and at such times
are often carried to some distance. The seeds at the top having escaped,
the dry pods split down farther and still farther and open still wider,
till the bottom is reached. As the seeds are not all carried away
the first or even the second time, and as succeeding breezes may come
from different directions, it is thus possible for the lily to scatter
its seeds in all directions.

The seeds of the lily are flat, very thin, and rather light, not
designed to be shot out like bullets, but to be carried a little way
by the wind; the pods are erect, and open at the top, that the seeds
need not escape when there is no wind or unless some animal gives
the stem a strong shake. The latticework was made for a purpose, and
the gradual opening of the pods prevents the supply from all going
in one direction or in one day, for a better day may arrive. The student
will look for and