It is a thrilling moment when the man who goes up with the balloon lets
go at last, and drops to the ground. Before he drops, an umbrella-like
parachute opens, and by its aid, he comes to the ground gracefully,
slowly, and alights unhurt. Should anything go wrong with his parachute
he would drop to his death, so every onlooker is anxious as he comes
down, and breathes a sigh of relief when the wonderful feat is
accomplished.
Seeds with wings sail away on the wind, and seeds with parachutes descend
so slowly and gracefully that the winds carry them far out of their
courses. The trees most fortunate in scattering their seeds, and thus
colonising new territory, have peculiar devices.
The seeds of the basswood hang in clusters attached to a narrow,
leaf-like blade. This is a parachute, by which the whole cluster is able
to sail away on a good breeze. There is no seed parachute like this among
our forest trees. By this sign alone we may know the basswood trees.
The balls of the sycamore bump against the branches, and tiny seeds with
hairy parachutes are loosened and scattered. Each is a minute spike,
which might drop to the ground, but for the umbrella-like parachute made
of a brush of fine hairs. By this, the wind lifts the seed, and carries
it away.
Willow seeds, and those of the poplar, are almost too small to be seen.
Each seed is hid in a dainty fluff of white cotton, and in this the seed
rides. We may miss seeing these trees in fruit, unless we look at the
down which accumulates in June on the screens of windows and doors. The
air is full of the fluffy stuff when the pods open. In a few days this
harvest is over, and we may find the empty pods on the ground under our
neighbour poplars, cottonwoods, and willows.
The blue beech, or hornbeam, has a parachute which is leafy, and crinkled
so as to look almost like a little boat. The shiny seed sits in one end,
and when it gets free, it has a fine long sail through the air before it
settles to the earth.
There are wings and parachutes on the seeds of other trees. When you find
them you may know that the wind is the partner of the tree, by robbing it
of its children. The wind is saving those children from death, which
would have been their fate, if they fell on the ground under the shadow
of the parent tree. If all the fields that adjoin the woods were left
uncultivated for a few years they would grow up to forests. We know the
name of the sower, who gathers seeds in the woods, and plants them; who
is busy all the year at the endless work of the harvest and the sowing.