A practical course in botany : with especial reference to its bearings on agriculture, economics, and sanitation . Fig. 37.—Good quality of clo-ver seed. Fig. 38. — Inferior quality ofclover seed mixed with screen-ings. a squhrel buries nuts for his own use and then forgets the lo-cation of his hoard and leaves them to germinate; or whena jaybird flies off with a pecan in his bill, intending to crackand eat it, but accidentally letsit fall where it will sprout andtake root. Both man and thelower animals are not only in-voluntary, but often unwillingagents of dispersal. Some of themost troubles
A practical course in botany : with especial reference to its bearings on agriculture, economics, and sanitation . Fig. 37.—Good quality of clo-ver seed. Fig. 38. — Inferior quality ofclover seed mixed with screen-ings. a squhrel buries nuts for his own use and then forgets the lo-cation of his hoard and leaves them to germinate; or whena jaybird flies off with a pecan in his bill, intending to crackand eat it, but accidentally letsit fall where it will sprout andtake root. Both man and thelower animals are not only in-voluntary, but often unwillingagents of dispersal. Some of themost troublesome weeds of civili-zation have been unwittingly dis-tributed by man as he journeyedfrom place to place, carrying,along with the seed for plantinghis crops, the various weed seeds,or screenings, as these mixturesare called by dealers, with whichthey have been adulterated either through carelessness andignorance, or from unavoidable causes. The neglectedanimals, also, that are allowed by short-sighted farmers towander about with their hair full of cockleburs and other. Fig. 39.—Dodder on red clover,showing how the seeds get mixed. 24 PRACTICAL COURSE IN BOTANY adhesive weed pests, are no doubt very unwilling carriers ofthose disagreeable burdens. 21. Tempting the appetite. — This is the most importantadaptation to dispersal by animals. Have you ever askedyourself how it could profit a plant to tempt birds and beaststo devour its fruit, as so many of the bright berries we find inthe autumn woods seem to do? To answer this question,examine the edible fruits of your neighborhood and you willfind that almost without exception the seeds are hard and bony, and either toosmall to be destroyedby chewing, and thuscapable of passinguninjured throughthe digestive systemof an animal; or, iftoo large to be swal-lowed whole, com-pelling the animal,by their hardness ordisagreeable flavor,to reject them. Incases where the seedsthemselves are ed-ible and attractive,the fruits are usually
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisher, booksubjectplants
