Weeds; Simple Lessons for Children (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ...sometimes eaten and sometimes scattered by Rooks intending to eat it. There are two ways in which seeds may be spread by animals: --(1) they may become attached for a time to some part of the animal's body, or (2) they may be eaten, and subsequently dropped. To take the first of these cases: --small seeds may be embedded in the mud which adheres to the feet of animals, which thus unknowingly become dispersers of seeds. For instance, birds which, like the Black-headed Gull, often feed on ploughed land, may thus carry seeds. In a case within the writer's experience, twenty-one species of common field plants were found growing at a nesting-colony of this bird situated in the middle of a large bog in King's County. None of the plants grew naturally on the bog; all had without doubt been brought by the birds from the adjoining farm-land. Again, the mud from the boots of a man who landed on Clare Island in Co. Mayo after a couple of days spent on the adjacent mainland, yielded about fourteen different kinds of small seeds. More interesting, however, are the cases in which the seeds would seem to lay themselves out for dispersal by animals. Many of our familiar plants bear seeds which are provided with tiny hooks or prongs or barbs, by means of which they may become attached, often very firmly, to any passing animal. Thus, the seeds of the Common Avens (Geum urbanum) and the Enchanter's Fig. 9. Seeds with hooks and barbs--Bur Marigold on left, Avens in centre, Wild Carrot on right. Enlarged. Nightshade (Gircaea lutetiana) have a long spine ending in a hook. The seeds of the Bur Marigold (Bidens) have each two barbed prongs, which make them quite difficult to remove if they get into one's clothes; and every child knows the round seeds of the Goose-grass or...