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Little Wanderers-Margaret Warner Morley · The New Science of Controlled Breathing

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Little Wanderers. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Little
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  Speaker 1: Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley, Chapter one, Why Plants travel.
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  Speaker 1: Plants are great travelers. They often wander far and wide.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes they even cross the ocean and take up their
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  Speaker 1: abode in a new land. The oxeye daisy, are common,
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  Speaker 1: meadow buttercup, and the little Canada thistle, now so abundant everywhere,
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  Speaker 1: are not native Americans, but came here from Europe. Very
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  Speaker 1: likely they sailed in the ships with the early settlers
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  Speaker 1: and took possession of the new world with them. They
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  Speaker 1: are so much at home now that most people think
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  Speaker 1: they always grew here. But they did not. And when
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  Speaker 1: the Pilgrim fathers looked over their new home, the fields
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  Speaker 1: were not white with daisies, nor yellow with buttercups. No
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  Speaker 1: doubt the pilgrim fathers were glad of this, for daisies
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  Speaker 1: and buttercups often cover the fields and spoil the hay.
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  Speaker 1: And while daisies in the meadow seem very lovely to
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  Speaker 1: the city people who go to the country for the summer.
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  Speaker 1: Daisies in the hay are another matter, and the farmers
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  Speaker 1: do not think them lovely at all. It is not
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  Speaker 1: the grown up plants that travel as a rule, though
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  Speaker 1: some of them do. For you must know, the plant
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  Speaker 1: world is a topsy turvy kind of place, where the
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  Speaker 1: parents stand still at home and the children wander about.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, the children are the seeds, and they are free.
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  Speaker 1: But when they once settle down and begin to grow,
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  Speaker 1: their wandering days are over. Plants with roots are great
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  Speaker 1: home bodies. Nothing short of actual violence can make them
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  Speaker 1: move from the spot they have chosen. Frequently it happens
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  Speaker 1: that they die if moved. Not so with the seed, however,
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  Speaker 1: they wander about, and their parents often take great pains
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  Speaker 1: to send them out into the world. For the children
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  Speaker 1: of the plants are very apt to die if they
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  Speaker 1: remain at home too long. They need to find a
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  Speaker 1: place in which to settle down and grow, and it
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  Speaker 1: is often better for them to do this at a
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  Speaker 1: distance from their parents. Plants eat what is in the soil,
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  Speaker 1: and each kind of plant needs some particular earth food.
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  Speaker 1: When plants of one kind are crowded too closely in
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  Speaker 1: a place, the earth is often impoverished, and the plant
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  Speaker 1: might die out if it were not able to find
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  Speaker 1: a fresh growing place. Then again, if the seed always
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  Speaker 1: fell close to the parent plant, the earth would soon
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  Speaker 1: become too crowded to support more than a very few
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  Speaker 1: new plants. So for these and other reasons, it is
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  Speaker 1: best for the seeds to go while they are able
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  Speaker 1: and find a place for themselves. Nearly all seeds are provided,
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  Speaker 1: I did, with some way of moving about. And while
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  Speaker 1: some of them go very short distances, others go very
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  Speaker 1: long ones. They travel for their profit, And why may
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  Speaker 1: we not say for their pleasure? For if a plant
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  Speaker 1: is able to feel and enjoy it all, and I,
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  Speaker 1: for one believe it is, then the dandelion seeds must
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  Speaker 1: feel very joyous sailing before the wind in the early summer,
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  Speaker 1: and later the thistle down and the milkweed seeds scudding
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  Speaker 1: before the breeze. End of chapter one, chapter two of
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  Speaker 1: Little Wanders by Margaret Warner Morley. The sleebrivox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Those that fly with plumes or
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  Speaker 1: down dandelions. Everyone is well acquainted with the dandelion, but
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  Speaker 1: not everybody knows that it was brought to this country
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  Speaker 1: from Europe. It is not probable that a dandelion's seed
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  Speaker 1: could come on the wings of the wind three thousand
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  Speaker 1: miles across the ocean, nor is it probable that people
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  Speaker 1: would bring it on purpose. Very likely dandelion seeds were
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  Speaker 1: accidentally mixed in with the grass and clover seeds the
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  Speaker 1: settlers brought from their homes in the Old World. Before
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  Speaker 1: the coming of the White Man, the Indian did not
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  Speaker 1: see the roadsides yellow with dandelions, nor did he see
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  Speaker 1: dandelions at all, excepting a kind that grows sparingly way
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  Speaker 1: up north, and another that grows in the rocky mountains.
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  Speaker 1: The European dandelions liked the new world, and when they
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  Speaker 1: had the chance, spread very fast, so that now they
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  Speaker 1: are everywhere, at least in the east. The reason they
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  Speaker 1: are able to spread so is that the dandelion seeds
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  Speaker 1: were able to fly. If they had not flown away,
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  Speaker 1: but had dropped down close to the parent plant and
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  Speaker 1: grown there, they would not have been allowed to spread much,
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  Speaker 1: for people do not like dandelions in their fields and lawns,
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  Speaker 1: and try hard to root them out. This would be
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  Speaker 1: easy if the dandelions kept together in patches but they
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  Speaker 1: seem to say, catch me if you can, and they
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  Speaker 1: fly on the wings of the wind, dropping down here, there,
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  Speaker 1: and everywhere, striking root and merrily growing. The parent dandelion
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  Speaker 1: takes very good care of its seed children and plans
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  Speaker 1: for their future success by giving each one a little
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  Speaker 1: plume by which it can be blown about in the wind.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody knows the pretty fluffy, white headed dandelions that come
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  Speaker 1: after the yellow flowers. Children often blow on them to
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  Speaker 1: see what time it is. If all the seeds fly
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  Speaker 1: away but one, they say it is one o'clock. If
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  Speaker 1: two remain, they say it's two o'clock, and so on.
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  Speaker 1: They also blow on them to see if mother wants me.
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  Speaker 1: As every child knows, each little silky part that flies
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  Speaker 1: away is a seed case and its plume. If you
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  Speaker 1: look carefully at the part of the dandelion that flies about,
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  Speaker 1: you will see the little brown seed case at one end,
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  Speaker 1: shaped something like a tiny cucumber, and with little teeth
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  Speaker 1: near its top. Out of its top grows a silky
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  Speaker 1: white stalk, and at the end of this is a
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  Speaker 1: tuft of soft little hairs, by means of which the
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  Speaker 1: seed case can float in the air. Each dandelion seed
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  Speaker 1: case contains one little seed, but the case fits the
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  Speaker 1: seed so closely that most people speak of the whole thing,
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  Speaker 1: seed case and seed together as the seed. The proper
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  Speaker 1: name for such a seed case and its seed is
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  Speaker 1: a keen. Not all a keenes have plumes. The top
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  Speaker 1: of the dandelione stem is a flat cushion, and the
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  Speaker 1: little achenes, when the seeds are ripe, stand pointing out
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  Speaker 1: in different directions, so there may be room for every
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  Speaker 1: one with its spread out plume. The plumes do not
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  Speaker 1: open out until the seed is ready to be blown away,
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  Speaker 1: and the achens do not stand pointed out in all
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  Speaker 1: directions until the time to fly has come. Before that time,
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  Speaker 1: they are all packed closely together. Because the little achene
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  Speaker 1: is so light and feathery, the breeze bears it along,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes for quite a distance, but at last it drops
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  Speaker 1: down to the earth, or else it is blown among
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  Speaker 1: the grasses or weeds or stones, and lodges there. And
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  Speaker 1: when the right time comes, the seed that is in
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  Speaker 1: the little brown seed case sprouts. Sometimes the air seems
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  Speaker 1: to be full of dandelion akens floating about. Although the
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  Speaker 1: dandelion is so bright and pretty, people do not like
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  Speaker 1: it in their lawns, excepting when in bloom or when
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  Speaker 1: it is white headed. It is not as pretty as grass.
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  Speaker 1: It does not make a very beautiful velvety carpet of
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  Speaker 1: the earth, but its leaves look ragged and uneven and
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  Speaker 1: spoil the appearance of the lawn. It is from its
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  Speaker 1: leaves that the dandelion gets its name, For dandelion means
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  Speaker 1: tooth of a lion, and if you look at a
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  Speaker 1: well grown dandelion leaf, you will understand why it came
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  Speaker 1: to have such a fierce name. Dandelions are very fond
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  Speaker 1: of growing in lawns. They like to be taken care of,
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  Speaker 1: and they seem to like to have their heads cut off. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: the lawnmower does not trouble them in the least. Their
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  Speaker 1: leaves grow close to the ground in the shape of
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  Speaker 1: a rosette, and when the lawnmower passes over, only the
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  Speaker 1: large outer leaves are harmed. The young ones towards the
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  Speaker 1: center of the rosette remain una hurt and have more
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  Speaker 1: light and air and space to grow in. So a
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  Speaker 1: dandelion flourishes in spite of its pruning. When a dandelion
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  Speaker 1: once gets its roots started. It does not make so
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  Speaker 1: very much difference if it has its flowers cut off,
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  Speaker 1: for it does not die when winter comes, only its
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  Speaker 1: leaves die. Its root continues alive in the earth, and
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  Speaker 1: in spring wakes up and puts out new leaves. So
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  Speaker 1: cutting off the flowers does not destroy the dandelion. It
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  Speaker 1: merely prevents seeds from forming and more dandelions from starting.
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  Speaker 1: Dandelion roots kill the grass by pushing it aside and
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  Speaker 1: taking the earth food for themselves. If a dandelion gets
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  Speaker 1: started in a lawn, they will soon kill out the grass,
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  Speaker 1: and then there will be a dandelion lawn instead of
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  Speaker 1: a grass lawn. A dandelion lawn is very beautiful for
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  Speaker 1: a little while in the early summer. Sometimes it looks
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  Speaker 1: like a carpet of gold. The yellow flowers are so
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  Speaker 1: thick and fine, But when they are done blossoming, the
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  Speaker 1: lawn is a sorey looking sight. Dandelions do not trouble
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  Speaker 1: the hay fields, for where the grass is allowed to
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  Speaker 1: grow tall, it soon smothers them. Boys are often hired
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  Speaker 1: to dig dandelion roots out of lawns, and near large cities,
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  Speaker 1: poor women may often be seen digging them out for
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  Speaker 1: the sake of the young leaves, which when they first
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  Speaker 1: come up in the spring make very good greens. These
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  Speaker 1: people sell them or eat them instead of spinach. Tender
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  Speaker 1: young dandelion leaves are very good, indeed, and some people
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  Speaker 1: like them better than spinach. Dandelion plants have a wise
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  Speaker 1: way of protecting their seed children until the time for flight.
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  Speaker 1: The flower buds come out of the center of the
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  Speaker 1: leaf rosette, close to the ground. They have very short
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  Speaker 1: stems and seem to sit right on the rosette. There
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  Speaker 1: are a great many flowers in one dandelion head. Each
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  Speaker 1: little yellow part of the dandelion flower head is a
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  Speaker 1: separate blossom, and each separate blossom has one seed case
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  Speaker 1: with a seed inside growing to the bottom of it.
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  Speaker 1: All these blossoms are shut up at first in a
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  Speaker 1: case of green leaf like parts, and form the bud.
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  Speaker 1: As the bud grows older, it stem lengthens a little,
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  Speaker 1: as you can see in the picture on page nine,
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  Speaker 1: unless it is on a lawn, then it does not
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  Speaker 1: Lengthen it seems to know the lawnmower will come along
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  Speaker 1: and take off its head if it grows taller, so
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  Speaker 1: it stays close to the ground. After a while, the
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  Speaker 1: green bud opens and many little yellow flowers push their
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  Speaker 1: way out, and the dandelion is in bloom. Towards night,
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  Speaker 1: the dandelion shuts again. The tiny yellow flowers press close together,
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  Speaker 1: and the outer covering of green bracts as they are called,
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  Speaker 1: closes up too and shuts them in, all snug and safe.
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  Speaker 1: When the dandelion has once closed, it does not open again,
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  Speaker 1: but its stem, which was very short, begins to Lengthen.
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  Speaker 1: It is a hollow stem, as you know, and has
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  Speaker 1: a bitter milky juice. Longer and longer grows the stem
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  Speaker 1: with the closed up flower cluster at its top. But
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  Speaker 1: this wide stem does not stand up, oh no, Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: it lies down or leans over, concealed by the grass
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  Speaker 1: and weeds. Unless it grows on a lawn, then the
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  Speaker 1: wide stem does not lengthen much. It is afraid of
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  Speaker 1: that lawn mower. If the dandelion is growing among tall grasses,
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  Speaker 1: the stem will grow very long. Indeed, if among short grass,
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  Speaker 1: it will not grow so long. By this time you
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  Speaker 1: can guess why. When the seeds are ripe and the
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  Speaker 1: silky plumes all nicely formed, that stem stands up it
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  Speaker 1: stands straight up and looks over the tops of the grasses.
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  Speaker 1: Then the green bracts on the outside turned back, and
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  Speaker 1: the silky tufts spread out and pull themselves free from
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  Speaker 1: the remains of the tiny flowers, which have withered and
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  Speaker 1: are no longer yellow. They do not fall off when
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  Speaker 1: the flower first closes, but make a little cap to
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  Speaker 1: protect the growing achens, And when these get ready to
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  Speaker 1: open out, the cap is pushed off by them. The
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  Speaker 1: hollow stem stands up, and its lovely silky head of
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  Speaker 1: plume de kenes shines in the sunlight. There is nothing
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  Speaker 1: much prettier in the plant world. Then the head of
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  Speaker 1: the fairy dandelion a keenes. All ready to fly away,
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  Speaker 1: They stand and shine until the breeze comes along that
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  Speaker 1: is strong enough to dislodge them. Then all in a
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  Speaker 1: moment they are off, sailing through the air. The parent
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  Speaker 1: plant is not sorry to have them go, for that
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  Speaker 1: is what it has worked so hard to accomplish. And
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  Speaker 1: as they float away, if it thinks at all, it
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  Speaker 1: no doubt hopes that each little shining wanderer will alight
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  Speaker 1: at last in a beautiful home of its own, with
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  Speaker 1: plenty of space and sunlight. And food for its growth.
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  Speaker 1: If there is not a breeze enough to carry away
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  Speaker 1: the dandelion akenes when night approaches or a storm gathers.
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  Speaker 1: The careful parent plant does not allow these silky treasures
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  Speaker 1: to become soaked and spoiled by moisture. Each little plume
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  Speaker 1: shuts up again, the silky top no longer spread out,
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  Speaker 1: and the green bracts too, turn up and cover them
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  Speaker 1: safely as before they go to sleep, hoping no doubt
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  Speaker 1: for better luck next day. There is no better fun
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  Speaker 1: than to watch the dandelions do these things. When children
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  Speaker 1: blow the heads of the dandelion away, that is just
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  Speaker 1: what the dandelion wants, for it sets all the achenes
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  Speaker 1: flying about in the air above the earth. The main
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  Speaker 1: thing for a dandelion seed is to get started. If
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  Speaker 1: it can get up in the air free from the
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  Speaker 1: weeds and grasses, it will be sure to take quite
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  Speaker 1: a journey and will doubtless settle in a new home.
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  Speaker 1: The bitter, milky juice of the dandelion very likely protects
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  Speaker 1: it from being eaten by various plant eating creatures. The
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  Speaker 1: juice is familiar to country children who pick the long
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  Speaker 1: stems of the dandelions split them and curl the parts
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  Speaker 1: in their mouths. These pretty stems make very long and
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  Speaker 1: fine curls, as every little country girl knows. And of
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  Speaker 1: chapter two, chapter three of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Thistles nobody
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  Speaker 1: can help liking thistles, that is, to look at. We
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  Speaker 1: do not care to handle them, nor do they care
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  Speaker 1: to have us, which perhaps is why they are covered
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  Speaker 1: all over with such sharp prickles. The prickles are an
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  Speaker 1: intimidation to us to let them alone. They do not
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  Speaker 1: want to be handled, and they do not want to
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  Speaker 1: be eaten. When a plant arms itself with thorns or prickles,
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  Speaker 1: that is its way of saying hands off. Few creatures
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  Speaker 1: besides donkeys, eat thistles. It is said that donkeys are
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  Speaker 1: fond of them, and some horses will nibble at them.
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  Speaker 1: But on the whole the thistles are let alone, excepting
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  Speaker 1: by the farmer who digs them up. Thistles are much
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  Speaker 1: more troublesome than dandelions, for they get into the hay
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  Speaker 1: and grain, and if let alone, some kinds will kill
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  Speaker 1: out all other plants and occupy the land themselves. There
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  Speaker 1: are many kinds of thistles, are large native ones that
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  Speaker 1: bear beautiful, showy purple or pink or white heads, are not,
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  Speaker 1: as a rule, very troublesome to the farmer. The little
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  Speaker 1: Canada thistle is the pest he dreads that, like the dandelion,
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  Speaker 1: came from Europe. No doubt, its seeds were first brought over,
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  Speaker 1: a very few of them, with other seeds from the
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  Speaker 1: old world, but all the little immigrant asked once to
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  Speaker 1: get started. Once across the sea, it was able to
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  Speaker 1: conquer the plants of America and get a place for itself.
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  Speaker 1: For its seeds fly like those of the dandelion, and
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  Speaker 1: in very much the same way. The Canada thistle spreads
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  Speaker 1: by running roots that live through the winter, as well
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  Speaker 1: as by seeds, so no wonder it quickly found its
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  Speaker 1: way far and wide. It is for this reason sometimes
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  Speaker 1: called the creeping thistle, and because it is so troublesome,
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  Speaker 1: it is also named the cursed thistle. There is a
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  Speaker 1: thistle in Europe which bears a light yellow flower head,
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  Speaker 1: and is called the blessed thistle or the holy thistle.
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  Speaker 1: It has its name because people used to believe it
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  Speaker 1: had power to counteract poison. This thistle has been brought
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  Speaker 1: over from Europe and is sometimes to be found in
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  Speaker 1: the southern part of the United States, where it has
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  Speaker 1: run wild. Thistle Heads are often very large and handsome.
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  Speaker 1: Like the dandelion flower clusters, they are made up of
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  Speaker 1: a large number of small blossoms. Bees and butterfl are
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  Speaker 1: very fond of thistle honey, and they can almost always
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  Speaker 1: be found on the blossoms, sucking out the drop of
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  Speaker 1: honey which is to be found in each little flower
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  Speaker 1: of the cluster. At the bottom of each little flower,
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  Speaker 1: as in the dandelion, is in achene and akin we remember,
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  Speaker 1: is a tight fitting seed case containing one's seed. The
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  Speaker 1: thisyle akine also has a plume to fly with The
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  Speaker 1: thistle plume has no stalk, but grows right from the
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  Speaker 1: top of the achene. The plumed achenes are packed tightly
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  Speaker 1: away beneath the scaly bracts that surround them. These bracts
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  Speaker 1: in the thistle are generally covered with sharp prickles, So
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  Speaker 1: although one likes to look at a thistle and inhale
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  Speaker 1: its fragrance, it is not a pleasant flower to handle.
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  Speaker 1: When the thistle seeds are ripe, the prickly covering lusens
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  Speaker 1: and the achines come trooping out in a soft, fluffy mass. Away.
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  Speaker 1: They fly one by one as the breeze dislodges them
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  Speaker 1: and carries them off. They are much more showy than
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  Speaker 1: the dandelion achens, for the plumes are much larger. Away
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  Speaker 1: they go this way and that, and after a while
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  Speaker 1: the wind blows them against a tree branch, or a
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  Speaker 1: fence rail or a stone. Then the achen, thus stopped,
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  Speaker 1: drops off from the plume to the ground. The achen
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  Speaker 1: in this case is done sailing about. It has come
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  Speaker 1: to rest, and very likely will lie until next spring
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  Speaker 1: before it sprouts. The plume is not harmed at all
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  Speaker 1: when the achen lets go, but at the next gust
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  Speaker 1: of wind flies on lighter than ever. One often sees
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  Speaker 1: these seedless plumes sailing about in the summer and fall.
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  Speaker 1: People sometimes gather the heads of large thistles before the
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  Speaker 1: seeds are ripe, pull out the pink par to the flowers,
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  Speaker 1: carefully pull off the prickly bracts, and hang the rest
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  Speaker 1: up to dry. The achenes do not then fall off,
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  Speaker 1: but the plumy part puffs out and makes a pretty
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: pompon with which the children's hats can be trimmed, and
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: of chapter three, chapter four of Little Wanderers by Margaret
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Milkweeds most of us like milkweeds. They are not so
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: troublesome as the dandelions and thistles. They generally grow in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: waste places, along stone walls or outside fences, where they
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: do no harm to the crops but make the roadsides charming.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Most kinds of milkweeds have a milky juice. As their
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: name tells, it is thicker and stickier than the dandelion juice,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and is very disagreeable if one gets it on his fingers. This,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: no doubt, is why the plant makes it that way.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: It does not wish us to get its juice on
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: our fingers. It wishes us to let it alone. It
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: also wishes animals to let it alone and not eat it,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and most animals are not fond of it. This is
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: not true, however, of certain caterpillars. Towards fall, you will
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: generally see the milkweed leaves covered with bright yellow and
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: black caterpillars that certainly are lovely, whether you think so
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: or not. If you take the largest of these caterpillars
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and put them in a box of earth with plenty
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: of fresh milkweed leaves to eat as long as they
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: want to eat, which will not be gone, you will
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: see what happens. Something happens, and you will do well
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: to find out about it. Milkweed have pretty fragrant flowers
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: that grow together, many in a bunch, but not close
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: together in a solid head. Like each little dandelion flower.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Each milkweed flower has its own little stem. Not all
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the flowers in the bunch of milkweed goat to seed. Generally,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: only one or two from each bunch dew. The rest
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: are crowded out and wither and fall off. For the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: milkwheed flower develops a very large seed pod that holds
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: a great many seeds, and there is not room on
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the stem for many of these big pods. The flowers
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of our common milkweed are pink purple in color, and
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the pods are fuzzy and irregular on the outside and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: are shaped as you see in the picture. Inside, they
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: are lovely. The pod itself is as smooth and shiny
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: as satin, and there is a bridge running lengthwise to
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: this grows the seeds a great many in each pod.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Each seed has a plume and looks very much like
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the thissilikine with its plume. But these seeds have no
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: seed case excepting the large pod in which they all
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: lie together. They grow inside this case, which opens to
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: let them escape. The milk weeaed seed looks so much
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: like the thissilikine that you would have to examine it
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: very carefully to discover the difference. The milk weeat seeds
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: are brown and round and flat, and each has a
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: silky plume with no stalk to the plume. The seeds
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: lie packed closely together in the pod with their plumes unopened.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: But when they are ripe, the pods splits open down
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: one side and the plumes fluff out. Then you will
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: see a pretty sight from the gap in the pod.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: The pretty silky seeds come spilling out. Their plumes touch
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: each other and hold the seeds together in a soft,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: feathery mass until long comes the breeze. Then, one after another,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: the pretty seeds float away and the empty pods are
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: left behind. Sometimes children catch bees in empty milkweed pods.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: The bees make a great buzzing in the pod, and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: it is not fair to keep them long, for it
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: interferes with their honey gathering and pollen collecting. If there
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: is anything a beehe hates, it is to waste time
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: with so many hungry mouths at home waiting to be fed.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Like the thistle, when the milkweed seeds become quite dry,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: they often drop away from their plumes, particularly if they
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: strike against something when sailing about. There are a number
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of species of milkweed. One common species has bright orange
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: flowers and is called butterfly weed. Its flowers look a
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: little like bright butterflies, and the butterflies are are fond
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: of its honey. There is a lovely milkweed in Florida
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: that has large pea green leaves with broad pink veins
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: running all through them. Some species of milkweed have long, slender,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: smooth pods, and very likely you have noticed them along
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the roadside and of chapter four, Chapter five of Little
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. The s LibriVox recording is
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Lettuce. Those who have seen lettuce
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: only on the table or growing in the early spring garden,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: or in the greenhouse will feel like laughing at the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: idea of lettuces flying. Yet they do fly, at least
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: their seeds do. Sometimes lettuces look like rosettes growing out
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of the ground, and sometimes they look like little cabbages,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: but that is only the leaves. If lettuces are let
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: alone and not picked in time, they will go to seed.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: A stalk will grow up from the middle, with small
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: leaves on it and a great many little flower heads
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: that look somewhat like tiny dandelions. These flower heads are
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: made like those of the dandelion or thistle. The lettuce
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: has no prickles, but its juice is milky and bitter,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and gets more bitter as the plant grows older. The
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: lettuce flowers have achenes like the dandelion, and each akeene
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: has a plume like that of the dandelion away fly.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: The pretty plumed akeenes and lettuce is thus sewn by
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the wayside. But one seldom sees garden lettuce growing except
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: in gardens, for it is so tender the strong rough
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: weeds choke and kill it. There is a wild lettuce, however,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: that has a large number of flower heads, and of
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: course a great many pretty silky, tufted kens. These lettuces
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: sometimes shine as if they had been snowed upon when
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: their silky white, plumed keynes first open out. I advise
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: you to see if you can find some of them
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: next summer. The best place to look is a long
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: fences and hedges, and in the corners of pastures. There
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: is a lettuce so troublesome to the farmer that large
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: sums of money have been appropriated to exterminate it. It
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: is called the prickly lettuce because its leaves and stalks
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: are brickly. It came to this country from Europe. It
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: is quite as destructive to the farmer's crops as the
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Canada thistle and a chapter five, Chapter six of Little
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Wanderers by Margaret Corner Morley. The s Liebrivox recording is
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Clematis. Of course, the climatis aqines
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: fly nothing so fluffy as they in the seed world
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: could do otherwise. The wild clematis that grows over the
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: bushes in some swamps is a beautiful vine, with glossy
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: leaves and clusters of pretty white flowers. After the snowy
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: flowers have gone, it is still beautiful. For then each
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: little aquine waves a long, shining, curly plume. The whole
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: vine is covered with these shining, twinning plumes. But a
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: day comes when they no longer shine. Each curling plume
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: looks like a mass of down, for its parts have
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: separated and stand out, and we now see that it
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: is shaped like a feather, a downy, fluffy feather. The
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: whole vine is a soft, fluffy mass. This does not
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: last long, for the achines leave the parent vine and
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: are borne aloft on their airy plume by the wind
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that scatters them far and wide. Some fall upon the
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: right kind of soil, where they are covered by the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: leaves of autumn, and lie safely until spring comes. Then
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: they wake up and grow, each into a beautiful climatis
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: vine with shining leaves. There is a beautiful clematis with
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: large blue purple flowers that grows in the mountains of
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Virginia and in some other places. And in chapter six
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: chapter seven of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley, the
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Asters and golden rod.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Asters and golden rod blossom in the fall. Then the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: country roads are lovely to walk over, and the fields
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: are as bright as can be with blue or purple
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: or white asters and yellow golden rod. Some kinds of
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: golden rod asters blossom in the summer, but most of
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: them wait until late in the season. They are almost
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: the last flowers to come and almost the last to go.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: When their bright flowers fade, they are still pretty. Each
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: flower of the aster is like the dandelion, a cluster
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: of very small flowers, and the golden rod flower head
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: is made up of very many tiny flowers. Each little
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: flower has its own achene and plume, quite like the dandelion,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: but a great deal smaller, and in time the clusters
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that were flowers become clusters of soft, downy plumes. This
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: state does not last long, for the achens are blown
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: away by the wind and sown far and near over
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: field and roadside. If you brush against the downy aster
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and golden rod heads when the seeds are ripe, the
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: achens will cling to your clothes like cobwebs, and you
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: will carry them about with you until finally they fall off.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Perhaps that is one way by which the golden rod
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: and astor seeds travel about. They cling to animals that
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: pass and so are carried far away. But they do
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: not cling, as well as the other seeds we are
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: soon to know about. And the chapter seven, chapter eight
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. The Slebrivox recording
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. The willow, the willow that
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: children know and love the best, is the pussy willow.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: It grows in damp or swampy places, and before the
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: leaves come out in the spring, the pussies are seen
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: on the branches. They are little, soft, silvery pussies, and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: it is not everybody who knows what they really are.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Each pussy or catkin, as we must call it, is
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: a group of small flowers, or rather flower buds, for
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: after the flowers are fully out, the pussies lose their soft,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: silky appearance and no longer deserve to be called pussies.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: The older catkins are covered with stamens full of yellow polan,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: or else with seed pods. For willows bear two kinds
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: of flowers, the stamen bearing or staminate flowers, and the
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: seed bearing or pistillate flowers. The staminate flowers grow on
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: one willow tree, and the pistillate ones on another. The
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: polan in the staminate flowers is very abundant and is
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: carried by the wind or by insects to the pistolate flowers.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: If you shake a twig of ripe staminate catkins, your
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: hands and clothes will be covered with poland dust. Bees
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: are fond of willow polan and eagerly gathering in the
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: early spring. The willow catkin has a tiny drop of
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: nectar at the base of each little flower, and bees
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and flies are fond of this and visit the willows
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: to get it. Of course, as the insects fly from
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: one catkin to another, they carry pollen from one to another.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: After a time, the staminate flowers wither and fall, but
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: the pistolate ones are followed by seed pods, and the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: stem that bears them lengthens to make room for the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: growing pods. And at last, when the seeds are ripe,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the pods split open and out comes the tiniest of
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: little seeds, each with a tiny plume of down, and
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: away they fly. There is a great many species of willow,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: and not all of them are as pretty as the
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: pussy willow. One reason why the pussy willow is so
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: pretty is that the catkins appear before the leaves. In
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: some willows, the catkins come with the leaves, and in
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: some they come after the leaves are fully grown. Many
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: willows have bright red or yellow or green stems that
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: give color to the landscape even in midwinter. In all willows,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: the pistolate catkins bear pods that open and let out
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: fluffy seeds. The cottonwood trees are relatives of the willows.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Their seeds are so very downy that when they are ripe,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the ground beneath the trees will often be white, as
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: though a light snow had fallen. It is because the
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: seeds are so abundantly supplied with soft, cottony plumes that
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: the tree is called cottonwood. Poplars are also closely related
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: to the willows, and like them, have fluffy seeds. In
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the early summer, if you look in the right place,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: you will see plenty of them. Willow and poplar twigs
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: are very strong and limber, and some kinds are used
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: to make baskets and chairs and cradles, and a great
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: many other useful things. The slender, young twigs are woven
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: together and make very strong and durable articles. Since only
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the long twigs can be used, people get them in
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: large quantities by cutting off the heads of the trees
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: when long sprouts shoot up all around the ends of
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the cut limbs. Cutting off the tops of the trees
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: in this way is called pollarding, and a pollard willow
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: or poplar is rather a funny sight, particularly after it
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: has had its head cut off a number of times.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Willow branches, about as large around as one's finger, make
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: very good whistles. In the spring of the year, the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: sap flowing under the bark loosens it so that by
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: pounding the twig, the bark can be slipped off unbroken,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: the wood beneath cut as desired, and the bark slipped
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: on again. The dotted line shows how the wood should
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: be cut away under the bark. Willow twigs also make
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: very good switches, and long a very long ago, when
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: children used to be naughty, willow switches were in great demand.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: In these later days, children are never naughty, I suppose,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: or is it only that switching has gone out of fashion.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: These switches did not come from weeping willows, though that
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: certainly would have been a very appropriate name for them.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Weeping willows are large and beautiful trees that come from
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: the eastern part of Asia. The twigs are very long
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and slender, and hanged down like a veil all about
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the tree. Weeping willows are favorites and parks and pleasure grounds,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: and it used to be the fashion to plant them
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: in cemeteries at the heads of gravestones. Everybody who has
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: tried to preserve bird skins or the skins of small
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: animals doubtless knows what salicilic acid is, but not everybody
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: knows that this is obtained from the bark of willows
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: and poplars. Some species of willow contain a great deal
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: of the substance from which salcilic acid is made. Salicilic
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: acid prevents animal tissue from decaying, and it is also
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: used as a medicine. It is not poisonous, but rather
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: unpleasant to handle, as it is apt to make one's sneeze.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: The bark of willows is also used in Europe for tanning,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: instead of oak or hemlock bark, which is commonly used
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: in this country. Tan bark is bark that has been
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: ground up and has the tannin or substance that hardens
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: leather extracted from it. The tan bark is then put
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: on roads or walks, or sometimes on city streets to
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: deaden the noise. It is often used in the country
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: for banking up houses in the winter. Willows grow quickly,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: and some of those that like wet places are often
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: planted on sandy shores of lakes or streams, or on
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: banks that their roots may bind the sand or loose
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: earth together so keep the shore from shifting. Very often
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a willow twig can be made to grow by merely
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: sticking the cut end in damp earth, and many a
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: large willow has thus been planted as a twig by
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the hand of a little child and a chapter eight,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. The
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Sleeprivox recording is in the public domain. Cattails cattail seats
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: fly too. It is surprising to know that cattails blossom,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: but they do in the early spring. Cattails look green
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: in stea instead of brown, and the thickened green part
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: near the top is made of very very small flowers
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: packed tightly together. The brown, velvety part of the cattail
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: succeeds the green flowers and is but a collection of
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: tiny seed pods that fluff out with tiny plumes in
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the autumn. There are two kinds of flowers in the cattail,
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: as there are in the willow. Only in the cat
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: tails the two kinds are on the same plant. If
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: you look at a cattail in its green stage, you
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: will easily find the staminate flowers growing at the very
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: top of the stalk at A in the picture. Out
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: of these staminate flowers you can shake clouds of yellow pollen.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Below the staminate flowers at b are the pistelate flowers,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: very small and packed very closely together. Each one has
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: a seed pod at its base, and each seed pod,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: when ripe, has a tiny plume. Of course, the seed
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: pods fly away on the wings of the wind. Being
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: so small and light, they are sometimes carried a long distance.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: A good many, no doubt, are so unfortunate as to
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: fall on dry ground, and that is the end of them.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: But others fall in swamps and ditches, where they grow
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: vigorously and often fill up the swamp or the ditch
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: so that it becomes a bed of cat tails. The
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: downy cattail seeds are gathered in some places and made
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: into mattresses for people to sleep on, and a chapter nine,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. The
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Sleepervox recording is in the public domain. Gereniums, the bright
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: flowers raised in hot houses or in windows, and that
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: we call geraniums, do not often bear seed in the house.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: In that part of the world where they grow wild
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: and out of doors in the summer time, they do,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: and their seeds are very curious indeed, for they cannot
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: only fly about, but can bury themselves in the ground.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: The geranium flower bears five curious seed pods that grow
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: close together around a common center. Each seed pod has
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: one seed, and when the seed is ripe, the pod
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: splits away from the centerpiece. The pod runs up to
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: a point. As you can see in the picture, there
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: is a long feather like plume packed in the long
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: stem like part of the pod, and this comes out
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: when the pod splits away. Then the whole thing is
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: floated off by the wind. This curious plume curls up
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: like a corkscrew when dry, and so pushes the seed
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: down into the grass or the earth where it has fallen.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: When the plume is made damp by rain or dew,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: it straightens out at the bottom of the seed case
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: are a few hairs or bristles that point backwards and
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: hold the seed so that it cannot be pulled out
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: of the ground when the bloom curls and straitens, but
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: must always be pushed farther in. It is a good
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: plan for every one who has not seen the geranium
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: seed case try to plant itself. To gather some ripe
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: seeds and lay them on the earth in a flower pot,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: let them get dry, then moisten them, and then let
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: them become dry again, and so on until one has
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: seen just how they work. And at chapter ten, chapter
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: eleven of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Often down south are
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: a great many cotton fields. Cotton was brought to the
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: United States from China and other faraway places. It did
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: not find its way here accidentally with other seeds like
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the dandelions and Canada thistles, but was brought on purpose
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: and carefully cultivated. A cotton field in early summer is
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: rather a pretty sight. It is covered with light green
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: little plants in straight rows. They have pretty leaves and
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: yellowish flowers that soon turn red. These flowers are about
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the size of a morning glory. In the fall, a
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: cotton field is much more interesting. The cotton plants are
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: three or four feet high and have branched out into
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: quite large bushes. The leaves have withered, but the bushes
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: are covered with cotton bowls or pods, out of which
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: are bursting quantities of snowy white cotton. The field looks
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: as if a sky full of soft, little snowballs had
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: fallen upon it. The cotton flowers are succeeded by pods
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: or bowls, as they are called, and these contain black
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: seeds about the size of a white bean. Each seed,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: when ripe, wears a coat of long, soft white cotton fibers,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: and when the bowls split open to let out the seeds,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: out gush streams of snowy cotton. The cotton field is
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: most picturesque during the picking season, when the negroes, the
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: women with bright kerchiefs over their heads, go into the fields,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: pick the cotton and carry it away in large baskets.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Each cotton seed is covered with cotton fiber that clings
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: very close and has to be removed by machinery. The
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: machine that does this is called a cotton gin and
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: is a very interesting and wonderful machine. Cotton seeds are
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: clean more than once. The first time, the long fibers
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: are pulled off, and this is the best of the cotton.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Then the seeds are cleaned again of less valuable because
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: shorter fibers, and finally of the short fuzzy coat that
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: clings to them after the second cleaning. The result of
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: this last cleaning is a very inferior cotton used only
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: for a few kinds of cheap cloth. Not all cotton
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: has white fiber. The Nankin cotton, which is grown near
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: the mouth of the Mississippi River in this country, is
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: naturally of a light tan color. Cotton is one of
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: the most useful plants in the world, and a great
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: deal of attention is given to raising and manufacturing it.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: The cotton has to go through a good many processes
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: before it is finally ready to be spun into thread
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: and then woven into cloth. Some very useful cotton is
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: not spun into thread, but comes to us in clean,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: soft rolls, which we call cotton batting. This is useful
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: for many household purposes, and when very thoroughly cleaned, is
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: used by doctors in dressing wounds. A large part of
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: our clothing is made from the cotton that grows on
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: the seeds of the cotton plant. The plant did not
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: make the cotton for us, but probably to enable its
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: seeds to be carried away by the wind and firmly
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: fastened to the ground when they lodge there. For a
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: cotton seed clings very tightly to the earth, particularly after
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: it has been wet. Cotton seeds are very useful aside
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: from the cotton they are clothed in. They contain a
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: good deal of oil and are ground in mills that
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: the oil may be pressed out. This oil is put
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: to a number of uses, and when purified, is even
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: used instead of olive oil as food. The meal that
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: is left after the oil has been pressed out makes
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: a valuable fertilizer and is also used as food for cattle.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Horses will not eat it, but cows are so fond
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: of it that they will come long distances to the
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: mills in order to lick up what meal they can find.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: This is the way its value as a food for
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: cattle was discovered. Cottonseed meal is bright greenish yellow in color,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: and as it colors everything, it touches. The cottonseed meals
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: are rather picturesque to look at, though not very pleasant
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: to walk about in the bark of the root of
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: the cotton plant is used as a medicine. But though
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: so many parts of this wonderful plant are useful, the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: cotton that covers the seeds is the most valuable of all.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: And a chapter eleven, chapter twelve of Little Wanderers by
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Other flyways, a great many other plants have plum seeds,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: and some have seeds with cottony coats. But of all
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: the cotton covered seeds, those of the cotton plant are
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the only ones with fibers long and strong enough to
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: be spun and woven. It would be useless to try
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: and tell about all the flyway seeds. There are so
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: many of them one would never get through. But it
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: is great fun to discover them for ourselves. If we
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: watch through the summer, we shall find many and many
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: of them. Quite a number of the grasses have plumes
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: to their seeds, and some of these plumed grasses are
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: very pretty. Indeed, we often see them used to decorate
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: houses and in Florida, one can see very beautiful grass
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: plumes growing in swamps everywhere. The fields and woods are
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: full of seed wanderers that fly about to find a home.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: And all that any one need do who wants to
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: see these pretty things is to look about and find them.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: End of chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen of Little Wanderers by
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: Seeds that fly with wings maples. Maple seeds also fly,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: but they have no silky or feathery or cottony plumes.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: They have wings instead. The fruit of the maple tree
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: is called a samara and consists of a seed pod
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: with a wing. Usually two pods grow together, though when
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: thoroughly dry they fall apart. The wings are thin and light,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: and the wind sometimes carries them a long distance. The
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: maple blooms in the spring or early summer, and though
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: its flowers have only stamens or pistols and no bright petals,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: yet they are very pretty. Maples, like willows and cattails,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: often have two kinds of flowers. One maple tree will
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: often have all staminate flowers and will look as if
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: trimmed with fringe, as the staminate flowers have slender stems
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: like threads. The red maple, which blooms early in the
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: spring before its leaves come out, has bright red fringes.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Sometimes these red flowered trees bloom in January in Florida,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: when the trees and bushes around them are bare, and
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: you can imagine they make the swamps where they grow
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: look very bright. The pistillate flowers are not quite as
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: airy as the staminate ones, but still they make pretty
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: fringes upon the trees. The wind blows the pollen from
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: the staminate flowers to the pistillate ones growing on neighboring trees,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: and that is why the flowers hang out on long stems.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Some maples have green fringes and some have yellow ones,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: but all are beautiful. After the flowering season is over,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: the staminet flowers disappear, but the pistolate flowers are followed
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: by clusters of samara, which are sometimes almost as bright
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: in color and as pretty as the flower fringes. When
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: the samaras are ripe, they fall from the tree and
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: are blown about by the wind. They cannot fly as
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: far as the plumed seeds, but they sometimes get carried
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: quite a distance. The seed within the samura often sprout
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: soon after it falls. You can see little maple trees
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: starting to grow by the roadside or even along city
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: sidewalks or in lawns. The samaras of the early flowering
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: maple trees fall quite early in the summer, but there
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: are other maples whose samaras remain on the trees until autumn.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Maples make beautiful shade trees, and some species grow to
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: a large size. One of the largest and most beautiful
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: of them is the sugar maple, which is not only
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: valuable as a shade tree, but yields delicious maple syrup
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: from its sap. The bark of this tree is tapped,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: that is, a hole is bored through it into the
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: wood beneath early in the spring, and a little wooden
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: tube or trough is driven into the hole. A pail
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: is hung or set beneath to catch the sap as
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: it runs out. Sap runs best when the days are
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: warm and the nights are cold. Then there are merry
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: times in the sugar camps. The sap is collected in
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: large kettles and boiled to syrup or until it hardens
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: into sugar. Just before it is ready to turn to sugar,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: it makes delicious wax. You pour the hot, thick syrup
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: upon the snow, and when it thickens into a sticky paste,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: you eat it. It is better than any kind of candy,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: at least I think so. A great deal of sugar
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: is made in the New England States, where the maple
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: grows abundantly, and in the early days the only sugar
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: some of the people had was maple sugar. Sometimes the
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: sap of other trees, as birches or elms is made
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: into syrup, but none is as abundant or as good
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: as the maple syrup. The wood of the sugar maple
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: is hard and is valuable for furniture and other uses. Indeed,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: the wood of most of the maples is prized for
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: furniture making. The birds i maple is a very pretty,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: satiny wood dotted over with round spots that look a
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: little like eyes. It comes from certain sugar maples whose
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: wood is full of little naughty places. The curled maple
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: is also a pretty wood, with wavy, shining lines made
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: by irregular streaks in the wood. It is sometimes found
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: in sugar maples and sometimes in other maples. Maplewood is
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: light in color and the bark of the tree is
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: rather smooth. It is gray in most species and often
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: has white spots on it. End of chapter thirteen, Chapter
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: fourteen of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. The LibriVox
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Elms, the American elm,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: is one of the most beautiful trees in the world.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: It is so majestic in size and so graceful in form.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: If you do not know the elm tree, get someone
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: to point it out to you at once, and you
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: will feel that you have made a new friend. It
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: is a very good thing to make friends with the
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: trees and to learn to know them when you see them.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Elm trees have winged seed pods or samaras. The trees
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: are covered with pretty short fringes in the springtime, very pretty,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: but not as airy and pretty as the maple fringes.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: The pistolate flowers are followed by samaras that do not
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: grow two together and that have the wing growing around
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: them instead of from one end. The bark of the
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: elm is very handsome. It is marked quite regularly and
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: is easy to recognize. It is a good thing to
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: learn to know a tree by its bark. The bark
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: of trees is an interesting and beautiful subject to study.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: The wood of the elm is tough and hard, and
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: is used in building ships and making wheels, and for
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: other purposes where a tough, hard wood is required. There
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: are a number of species of elm trees, but the
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: best known one is the beautiful American elm that is
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: everywhere used in parks and for shade trees. Next to
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: this is the red elm or slippery elm, whose inner
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: bark is fragrant and mucilaginous and good to chew. This
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: bark is good for colds and is sometimes ground up
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: and made into lozenges. Every country boy lays up a
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: supply of slippery elm bark to dry in the attic,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: along with his nuts and a chapter fourteen Chapter fifteen
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Ash trees. Ash trees are tall,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: straight and handsome, with a very dark colored bark so
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: regularly marked that one soon learns to know it at
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: a glance. I once knew three of them that stood
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: in an open pasture on the shore of Lake Ontario.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: It was worth going to the pasture in a high
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: wind to see the tall, beautiful trunks sway as the
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: wind struck them. I used to wish I could climb
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: up into the tops of them, though it would have
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: been a very unsafe perch. Indeed, you've guessed by now
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: that the ash trees have winged seed pods, and so
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: they have. When the little clusters of ash flowers first
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: show in the springtime, they are black and the tree
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: seems to have black tipped branches. Soon the black tips
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: develop into dark green fringes, though these are not airy
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: and light like the maple and elm fringes. The best
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: way for you to find out just how ash blossoms
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: look is but you know perfectly well what is the
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: very best way to find out, and I hope you
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: will take care to do it. Ash seeds are winged
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: like those of the maples, and are called samaras, but
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: they do not grow two together. Ash trees often bear
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: great numbers of samaras, more than any other tree. Where
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: ash trees grow near houses, the samaras often fall on
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: the roofs and fill up the gutters, so that they
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: have to be cleaned out, sometimes more than once in
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: a season. The wood of the ash is so very
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: tough and elastic that from all time it has been
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: used to make bows and spear shafts. Of course, it
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: is also valuable for less warlike uses. When you read
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: the one hoss Shay, you will find one use to
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: which ashwood is sometimes put. The ash tree used to
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: be held sacred by the ancient Norsemen, And some day
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: you will read beautiful stories about the wonderful ash Yigdrizil.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: The small tree mountain ash is not an ash at all,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: and it has, as you know, red berries instead of
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: samaras end of chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen of Little Wanderers
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: public domain. Pines pine trees bear cones, and cones do
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: not fly, but if you examine the scales of the cone,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: you will find a winged seed under each. When the
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: cones are ripe, the scales open and the seeds drop
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: out and are caught by the wind and floated away.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: There are a great many species of pine trees. The
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: seeds of some are large and sweet, and are sold
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: as pine nuts. These trees do not grow in this country, however,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: and we should have to go to South America, or
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: to Asia or western Europe to find pine trees from
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: which we could gather nuts. Squirrels gather nuts from all
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: the pine trees, however, for they are not as particular
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: as we and think them all good. They are very
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: clever at gathering cones, gnawing off the scales, and getting
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: out the seeds. Pine trees, like the maples and elms,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: have two kinds of not exactly flowers, but something answering
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: to them. The ovules, or young seeds, are borne under
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: the scales of the cones, and the stamens are in
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the catkins. Sometimes these catkins are very large, and they
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: bear a great deal of poland, which the wind carries
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: to the cones. A pine forest is always as sweet
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: and delightful place. When the sun shines on the trees,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: they fill the air with fragrance. Pine trees used to
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: grow all over the northern part of the United States,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: but they make very valuable timber, and so have been
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: carelessly cut down and the forests destroyed, until now in
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: many places there are almost no pine trees left. This
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: was a great mistake, as the people now know, the
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: white pine of the north gave a soft white wood
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: that could be easily carved or turned, and it was
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: used more extensively than any other wood as long as
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: the forests lasted. A large part of the South is
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: still covered by forests of yellow pine, whose wood is dark,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: hard and valuable for building purposes. The pine forests of
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: the South also yield large quantities of tar, resin and turpentine,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: and it is sad to see the forests being carelessly destroyed.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Each year, the trees are cut for their sap, from
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: which turpentine and other products are made, but if the
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: same trees are cut three years in succession, they die.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: The turpentine makers, however, cut them as long as they
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: will yield sap, because it is easier to stay in
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: one place three years than to move their camps to
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: a region of fresh trees. This is wrong and will
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: result in destroying the valuable southern pine forests in a
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: short time. We should take care of the trees, for
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: they are our good friends. Besides providing wood for all
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: sorts of uses, they protect the earth, keep it moist,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: and prevent the streams from drying up. In many places,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: the farming land has been destroyed because the forests were
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: cut down when the land all about dried up, so
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: that nothing of value to man could grow on it.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: With proper management, trees can be cut for use without
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: destroying the forests. And of chapter sixteen chapter seventeen of
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Seeds that fly without wings or plumes.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: Poppy seeds have no wings and no plumes, and yet
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: they are carried far and wide by the wind. That
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: is because they are so very small and so very light.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: They look more like dust than seeds. The poppy pod
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: is like a cup with a cover on, but around
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: the edge, just below the cover, is a row of
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: small holes, each covered by a lid. These lids do
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: not open until the poppy seeds are ripe. Then they do,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: and the fine seeds can get out of the holes.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: But how do they get out? They cannot move of themselves.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: But the wind sways the poppy pod this way and
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: that on its long stalk, and the little seeds are
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: shaken out, only to be caught by the wind and
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: blown away. Perhaps you think that this is not a
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: very sure way for seeds to escape, But if you
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: examine a poppy head that has been ripe for some time,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: you will find scarcely a seed in it. So it
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: proves to be a better way than it looks. Nature's
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: wigh is generally the best way to accomplish an object.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: Poppies are often seen growing by the roadside or in
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: the garden, far from the flower beds. That is because
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the wind has blown the seeds to these places. In England,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: the wheat fields are often gay with scarlet poppies, which
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: have no doubt been sown with the wheat. They are
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: beautiful to look at, though the farmer does not enjoy
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: seeing them in his wheat. Opium is obtained from the
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: juice of the partly ripened seed pods of some kinds
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: of poppies. Opium is very valuable as a medicine, but
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: it has to be used with great care, as it
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: is also a powerful poison. A valuable oil is expressed
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: from the seeds of the opium poppy. This oil is
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: used for illuminating purposes in some parts of the world,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: and also for soap making the finer quality is used
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: as food instead of olive oil in countries where oil
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: is eaten instead of butter, and it is also used
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: in grinding artists colors and of chapter seventeen Chapter eighteen
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. The sleeper box
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Other seeds that are
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: moved by the wind. Many many other plants have seeds
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: or seed pods that can be carried away by the wind.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: The fields and hedges are full of plumes and winged seeds,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: and of seeds so light as to be readily carried
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: away without special plumes or wings. At the top of
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: this page is the picture of a trumpet vine. When
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: you have the chance, examine the seeds in the pod
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: of a trumpet vine and see how they are enabled
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: to fly away. Hops are pretty plants and useful ones
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: as well. And if you examine hop seeds you will
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: see what you will see. Some clovers have seeds that fly,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: see if you can find them. Linden trees are covered
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: with clusters of white, sweet scented flowers in the early summer.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: Each cluster of flowers is attached in a curious way
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: to a wing, and often the whole cluster with its
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: wing falls together and is blown to some distance by
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: the wind. When the lindens are in bloom, you will
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: know it by the humming of the bees, for they
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: are very fond of linden honey, and the trees often
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: sound like an enormous beehive. There are so many bees
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: about them. It would take altogether too long to tell
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: about all the seeds that are carried by the wind.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: But you can find a great many of them without
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: being told, and that, after all, is the best way.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: At the bottom of this page are the seed pods
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: of the cow parsnip, a very large, course but rather
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: handsome weed often found in the corners of pastures. You
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: can see that its seed pods fly and a chapter
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: eighteen chapter nineteen of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Tumbleweeds. Tumbleweeds
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: are funny. They do not fly in the air, but
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: they go scurrying over the surface of the earth. They
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: grow on the western plains and in other places, and
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: sometimes get to be as large as a bush or basket.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: They are not very interesting until they begin to tumble.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: This happens in the fall of the year. The plants
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: grow like ordinary little bushes in the summer and bear
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: a great many clusters of small flowers. Late in the season,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: the leaves fall off, and the stems of the plant
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: curl over and make a ball of it. The seeds
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: do not fall yet they can be seen in pretty
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: brown clusters inside the ball. Along comes a gust of wind.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: The tumbleweed, all rolled up and quite dry, now breaks
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: loose from the earth, and away it goes, head over heels,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: rolling like a wild thing across the prairies. It is
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: very funny to see a prairie full of tumbleweeds racing along.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: They look as if they are playing tag. When a
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: train passes, those near the track are caught in the draft,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: and off they start, head over heels as fast as
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: they can. They look exactly as if they were chasing
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: the train. Tumbleweed does not send its seed children out
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: alone into the world. It goes along and spills them
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: over the prairies as it tumbles about. For After a while,
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: the seeds get thoroughly ripe and fall off. If you
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: were to see the tumbleweeds rolling about over the prairies
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: in the fall. You would not wonder there were so
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: many of them growing everywhere in the summer. There are
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: several kinds of tumbleweeds in the West. One of them
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: is called the Russian thistle. Though it is not a thistle.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: It came from Europe and has proved to be the
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: very worst weed the farmer has to deal with. It
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: tumbles about in the fall, rolling far and wide over
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: the prairies before the high winds. In a few years
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: it has become such a nuisance that large sums of
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: money are spent by the government to exterminate it. In
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: some places, the school children have been taught to recognize
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: it and to pull it up wherever they see it growing.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: End of chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty of Little Wanderers by
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Margaret Warner Morley. The sleeper box recording is in the
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: public domain. Wanderers that cling burdocks seats have other ways
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: of going about besides being blown by the wind. One
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: way is to fasten on to anything or anybody that
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: passes and get carried to some other place. Burdocks do this.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: Burdocks grow in door yards if they get a chance,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: and in fence corners and pastures, and along roadsides, and
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: in fact almost anywhere. They are sturdy weeds and often
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: grow quite large in the ugly duckling hands. Anderson tells
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: us about them. In a sunny spot stood a pleasant
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: old farmhouse, circled all about with deep canals, and from
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: the walls down to the water's edge grew great birdocks,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: so high that under the tallest of them a little
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: child might stand upright. Like the dandelions and Canada thistle,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: the birdocks came from Europe, and a great many people
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: wish they had stayed at home. That is because of
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: their burrs, which are a nuisance in the fall of
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: the year. Everybody knows what birds are. They stick fast
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: to the clothes of people, and get on the tails
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: means of horses, where they must cause a great deal
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: of discomfort, and where it is a great deal of
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: work to pick them out. They get upon the tails
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: of cows too, and the fleeces of sheep, and dogs
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: get them on their ears. The reason is this the
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: birds are full of seed pods. The burdock flower head
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: is like the dandelion, made up of a great many
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: tiny flowers, and each flower has a close fitting pod
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: containing one seed, or inn aikin, as we have learned
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: to call it. The head of flowers is covered by
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: stiff green bracts, and at the end of each bract
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: is a hook. These hooks are soft when the flowers
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: are in blossom, and they do not catch fast to things.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: But when the seeds ripen, the bracts grow hard and stiff,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: and so do the hooks at the end. Now, when
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: an animal or a person comes along and brushes against
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: these ripe birds, the strong hooks catch. The burr full
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: of ripe akines, is pulled from the plant and is
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: carried away. It is easy to guess why this happens.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: When one tries to pull a ripe burr from the clothes,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: it falls all to pieces and the achenes spill out.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: Then each hook has to be pulled out separately, and
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: very likely each one will prick the fingers. Children sometimes
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: pick the birds before they are ripe and stick them
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: together to make baskets and other things. Then the birds
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: do not fall to pieces nor prick the fingers much.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: The bird ock has a rank, disagreeable odor that clings
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: to the fingers a long time after the birds have
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: been handled, it is not easy even to wash it off.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Children often pick right burs and throw them at each other.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: Some think this is funny and some think it is naughty.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: Birdocks yield a valuable medicine, so they are useful as
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: well as troublesome. End of chapter twenty Chapter twenty one
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Cockleburs and sand spurs. Cockle
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: Burs are covered with hooks too, but they are much
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: uglier than birdocks, for their seed pods are very hard
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: and are covered on the outside with stiff, strong hooks
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: that prick like needles. When one walks among cocklebars, he
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: soon stops to pick them off, for they hurt so
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: he cannot bear it. Spurs are even worse than cockleburs.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: They are the seed coverings to a kind of grass
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: in Florida. This grass grows in tufts and spreads out
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: close to the ground. Some of its stalks are covered
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: with sand spurs that, like the cockle burs, are hard
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: and are covered not with hooks but with very hard spines.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: These spines stick out in all directions and readily fasten
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: upon whomever or whatever comes along when they leave the
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: parent grass and are carried away. After a time, they
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: are picked off and thrown on the ground, or they
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: fall off, and that is their way of traveling to
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: find a place to grow. Dogs often get them in
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: their feet, and then they have a hard time picking
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: them out, for of course, the poor things cannot walk
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: with sand spurs between their toes. There was once a
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: dog that hated sands spurs and loved people so much
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: that when anyone came near him with sand spurs on
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: his clothes, he would at once begin to pick them off,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: And the expression with which he jerked them out of
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: his mouth showed very plainly what he thought of sand spurs.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: And a chapter twenty one, chapter twenty two of Little
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. The Liebrivox recording is in
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Tick treefoil. When walking in the woods
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: in the late summer, we sometimes find queer jointed little
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: pods like unfinished pea pods, clinging to our clothes. These
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: come from plants that belong to the pea family and
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: are called tick treefoil. There are nearly two dozen kinds
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: of them. And sometimes they seem to be everywhere in
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: the woods and thickets. The pods are like pea pods,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: only that they are jointed, and the joints break apart
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: so that each may be carried away separately. Each joint
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: contains a little pea like seed. The outside of the
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: pod seems fuzzy, and it clings very closely to whatever
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: it touches. If we look at the fuzz with a
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: magnifying glass, we shall find it made up of innumerable
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: little hooks. The hairs that cover the pods are turned
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: up at the end to form little hooks, very delicate
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: but able when there are so many of them to
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: hold on very tightly. They seem to snuggle down into
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: the cloth they touch, so that it is difficult to
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: pick them off, and the joints all separate when we
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: try to remove them, so that each one has to
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: be taken off separately. Another plant whose seed pods are
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: covered with hooked hairs is the sweet scented bed straw.
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: This is a pretty little plant that spreads about on
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: the ground. Its flowers are small and greenish, but the
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: whole plant, when in bloom, has a pretty lace like effect.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: As we find it in the woods, very often growing
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: about fallen logs. Its seed pods are small, and, like
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: the tick trefoil, are covered with hairs that, under the
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: magnifying glass are seen to be hooked. The Enchanter's night
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: shade is another little plant whose seed pods are covered
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: with hooked hair. It is as pretty as its name
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: and is to be found in damp woods. There is
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: a tall, leafy kind that grows sometimes two feet high
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: and is topped with numerous branches of small white flowers.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: As the flower stems lengthen the flowers continue to unfold
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: at the tip, while lowered down are the many little
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: seed pods shaped like little tennis rackets. The prettiest Enchanter's
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: night shade, however, is a little fairy that sometimes grows
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: on decaying logs. It is often not more than three
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: or four inches high and ends in a branch of
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: pretty little white flowers with bright red kaalix lobes. After
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: these dainty blossoms come the little hooked haired racket shaped
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: seed pods. Look for Enchanter's night Shade the next time
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: you go to the woods in the summertime. Below is
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: a picture of the large one end of chapter twenty
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: two Chapter twenty three of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: The LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Stick tights.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: Stick tights are troublesome to us, and we call them
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: very disagreeable names, such as beggar ticks and beggar lice.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: But they are really not bad at all, and are
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: quite pretty. If they stick to us, that is our
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: fault quite as much as theirs, for we should keep
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: away from them. If we are unwilling to carry them about.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: They cling to whatever comes along, because that is their
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: way of traveling about. They cannot walk or creep, or
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: crawl or jump. Neither can they fly very far nor
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: move in any other way excepting as they are carried.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: You know how they look, so, of course, this little
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: brown flat object with horns is in a keen. Inside
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: it is a seed. The two horns at the top
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: are able to fasten it quite tightly to a woolen
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: dress or a sheep's fleece. If you look carefully, you
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: will see little hard teeth on the edge of the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: stick tight that help it to cling on one species
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: of stick tight. These teeth point backwards like the barbs
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: of a fish hook, and that kind sticks very tightly.
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: Stick type plants blossom in the summertime. The greenish yellow
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: flowers are clustered in heads like the dandelion flowers, and
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: like those, each stick type flower has an akine at
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: the bottom. These akenes grow much larger than those of
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: the dandelion, and they have the two horns on their heads.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: The akeens stand on a flat cushion, just as the
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: dandelion akeens do, but these do not wait for the
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: wind to blow them away, though if nothing comes along
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: to pull them loose, they in time become very dry
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: and fall out, and then the wind often carries the
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: light little things some distance. But their favorite method of
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: traveling is by stagecoach, and if you happen along at
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: the right time, they will take you for their stage
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: coach and let you carry them to a new place.
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: Some time. The plants grow so closely together that in
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: passing through them, one becomes quite covered with the little
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: brown things, and it is a long and tiresome task
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: to pick them out. They too get on the tails
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: and manes of horses, and the tails of cows, and
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: the coats of dogs, and the fleeces of sheep, but
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: they are not nearly as troublesome to these creatures as
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: are the bird ocks. There are several species of stick tites,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: or figuer ticks, as they are more generally called. Some
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: have rather large flower heads, with the outer flowers each
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: provided with a long, broad yellow petal. These are often
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: called wild sunflowers because they look something like a little sunflower.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: There is a plant called Spanish needles, very closely related
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: to the stick tites, and that has four horns to
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: its seapod. The bur marigold, which grows in wet places
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: and whose greenish flower heads are round like a marble,
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: is also related to the stick tites, and like the
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: Spanish needles, has four horns. A great many plants have
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: these little horned seed cases, and when you go about
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: the country in the fall of the year, you will
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: be certain to make the acquaintance of some of them.
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: The plants with horned seed pods wish their seeds to
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: get out of the dense thickets in which they usually grow,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: and they do what they can to help them. End
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: of chapter twenty three Chapter twenty four of Little Wanderers
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox according is in the
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: public domain. Agrimony and other weeds. In the fall of
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: the year and towards the end of summer we find
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: a great many weeds in the woods and along the roads,
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: sending their seeds out into the world by means of
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: stout hooks or else hooked hairs or sharp spines. The
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: agrimony is one of these. It is a common, rather
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: pretty plant with yellow flowers, and it has a burr
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: or seed pod armed with hooked prickles around the waist,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: so to speak. After a walk in the country through
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: the woods and fields in the autumn, one will be
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: likely to find a number of little things clinging to
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: one's clothes. Instead of merely shaking or picking them off
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: and throwing them away, carefully collect them, and when there
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: is time look at them, you will very likely find
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: yourself decorated with a number of different kinds of seeds
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: or seed pods that vainly hoped in you to find
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: a means of traveling to new and better places of growth.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: All these little brown things are disappointed, or would be
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: if they could feel disappointed. But you can profit by
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: their misfortune, and by carefully examining the little waters, can
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: learn a great many interesting and wonderful truths about the
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: plant world in its effort to scatter its seeds. End
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: of chapter twenty four Chapter twenty five of Little Wanderers
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: public domain. Flax the flax is a very useful plant,
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: for the fibers of its stems are long and strong,
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: and are spun into thread and then woven into linen.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: Besides this, the seeds are useful. They contain an oil
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: which is pressed out and is known as linseed oil.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: It is used a great deal by painters in mixing
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: their paints. When flax seeds are wet, they become very
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: sticky on the outside. A jelly like substance covers them,
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: and this it is which we drink in flax seed
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: tea to cure our colds. You can easily see this
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: jelly like covering by putting a few flax seeds in
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: a few drops of water and leaving them there for
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: a little while. You can readily see that when the
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: flax seeds are shed in the field and are met
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: by the rain, they would stick to the feathers, feet,
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: and beaks of birds. That came to eat the seeds.
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: If the birds flew to another place, as they often
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: would to clean their plumage, they would rub off the
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: flax seeds that meantime had become dry again, and often
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: the seeds would drop off as the bird moved about.
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: In this way, they would get planted in new places.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: No doubt, the sticky covering to the wet seed also
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: helps to anchor it to the ground and keep it
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: from blowing away when once it has settled down on
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: the earth. The flax plant that we find so useful
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: is not wild. It is carefully cultivated in many parts
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: of the world, and has been cultivated for so long
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: a time and in so many places that nobody knows
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: where it first came from. It is a pretty plant
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: that bears bright blue flowers. Why do you not go
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: buy a penny's worth of flax seeds at the drug
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: store and plant them in your garden and become acquainted
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: with this very interesting and beautiful little plant. End of
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: chapter twenty five Chapter twenty six of Little Wanderers by
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: Margaret Warner Morley. The LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: Mistletoe The mistletoe grows on trees. It has no roots
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: of its own, but attaches its out to the bark
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: of the trees and sucks out the sap. Since it
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: lives up in trees, its seeds must be able to
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: find lodgment in these high places, and this the birds
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: help them do. The mistletoe has light green leaves. It
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: grows in bunches and bears white berries. The seeds in
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: the berries are covered by a vised substance, and when
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: the birds eat the berries, some of these seeds will
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: be apt to cling to them and be left on
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: the branches of some other tree. If the seed happens
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: to get swallowed, that does not hurt them, for they
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: are not digested, but are passed out just as they
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: were swallowed, and they then often fall upon the tree
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: branches where they can grow. The English mistletoe very often
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: grows upon the oak tree, and from very early times
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: the plant was reverenced by the people, and particularly by
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: the druids, who used it in their religious observances. A
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: survival of this old superstition about the mistletoe is found
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: in its use today at Christmas time, and a chapter
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: twenty six Chapter twenty seven of Little Wanderers by Margaret
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: Other plants with sticky seeds or seed pods. Quite a
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: number of plants prepare sticky coverings to their seeds or
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: seed pods in order to help the seeds get away.
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: The squirting cucumber is one of the most curious of these.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: It grows wild in southern Europe, but is sometimes seen
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: in gardens in this country, not because of its beauty,
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: but because it is so curious. It is a hairy
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: plant and not at all pretty. But when its hairy
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: cucumber shaped seed pods are right, something funny happens. The
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: pod falls from the vine, and through the round hole
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: left when it fell away from its stem, that which
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: is inside the pod is shot out with violence, outfly
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: seeds in a quantity of sticky liquid. If a bird
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: happens to be about when this happens, he will make
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: haste to get far from such a queer acting plant,
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: And if he was shot by it, he will carry
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: some of the sticky seeds with him, or he may
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: get the seeds attached to him after they have been
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: shot out. You see, the squirting cucumber has two ways
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: of sending its seeds on their journey into the world.
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: It shoots them some distance at the start, and also
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: provides them with a sticky covering so that they may
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: have a chance to get carried still farther. Some plants
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: have sticky hairs growing to their seed pods. We know
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: so that a good many plants have their pods covered
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: with hairs which are hooked at the ends. Well, some
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: are covered with hairs that have a drop of vicid
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: substance at the tip instead of a hook. These hairs
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: fasten on quite as firmly as if they were hooked.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: The pretty little twin flower, or ground vine as it
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: is sometimes called, has a pair of scales growing about
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: its seed pod, and these scales are covered with sticky hairs.
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: The soft little mouse ear chickweed, that grows everywhere in
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: waste places, has several species which are covered all over
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: with fine hairs which have a sticky tip. When the
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: plant withers, it is easily pulled from the ground, and
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: as it remains sticky even after withering, the whole plant
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: is often carried away by passing animals or people, and
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: its seeds shed in some distant place. See if you
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: can find some plants that have their seeds carried because
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: some parts of the plant is sticky. There are not
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: a great many of them. Still, if you look long
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: enough you will be sure to find some and a
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: chapter twenty seven Chapter twenty eight of Little Wanderers by
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: Margaret Warner Morley. The Sleeprivox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: Wanderers that float some kind of plants live in the
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: water or on the edge of it. These often have
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: seeds or seed pods light enough to float. You can
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: generally see little seeds floating about on ponds. If you
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: take the trouble to look into these ponds come ducks
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: or herons or other waterfowl. The birds come to find
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: something to eat, and as they swich or weighed about,
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: they come in contact with the wet seeds that cling
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: to them. After a time, the birds, bearing the seeds
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: on plumage, beak or feet, fly to another pond or marsh,
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: and as they alight the seeds are floated off. The
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: wind then blows them to the shore or else in time.
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: If they live in the water, they sink to the
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: bottom and sprout. The coconut is a seed that is
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: surrounded by a strong shell and a thick coat of
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: fiber that protects it from the water and also makes
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: it light. The nut inside this thick overcoat is hollow
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: when ripe, excepting for a watery liquid that we call
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: the milk of the coconut. As we see coconuts in stores,
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: the outer coat has been taken off. Coconuts grow near
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: the tops of tall coconut palms, and these palms are
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: fond of standing on the seeds shore. When the nuts
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: get ripe, they often fall in the sea and are
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: carried long distances by ocean currents. In this way, no
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: doubt many a coral island has received its lovely fringe
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: of coconut palms. The nuts are floated to these little
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: islands and washed into crevices on them, where they lodge
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: and in time grow into stately trees. The coconut palm
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: is a very important tree in tropical countries. The nuts
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: are used as food and a valuable oil is obtained
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: from them. Coca oil is used for illuminating and also
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: for making salves. The thick fiber that surrounds the nut
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: is strong and tough, and is made into cloth matting brushes, baskets,
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: coarse rope, and a number of things. Matting is used
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: in some hot countries to make the sides of houses,
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: and the coconut fiber is useful to thatch roofs. The
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: wood of the tree is hard and durable and is
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: made into many household articles. The hard shell of the
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: nut makes good cups and dishes. So you see, the
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: coconut tree affords almost everything the people in the hot
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: countries need. They make their home and furnish them from it.
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: They get food and drink from it. For the milk
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: of the coconut is a very pleasant beverage, and they
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: use the oil to light their abodes at night. No
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: wonder people value this noble tree very highly. And chapter
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: twenty eight Chapter twenty nine of Little Wanderers by Margaret
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: Seeds that animals like to eat the hickory. The meat
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: of the hickory nut is a seed. The hickory trees
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: bear two kinds of blossoms. Like the willow, it has
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: staminant catkins and also bears pistolate flowers from which grow nuts.
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: Some hickory catkins are very long and slender, and make
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: pretty green tassels on the trees in the spring. Hickory
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: nuts are good to eat, and you may wonder how
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: these delicious nuts that many creatures are fond of ever
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: get a chance to grow. Squirrels are fond of nuts,
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: and they are generally on hand when the nuts are ripe.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: The green nuts have an outer covering that splits open
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: when the nut is ripe and lets it fall to
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: the ground. Of course, when a squirrel has eaten a nut,
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: that is the end of it. But squirrels are good
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: housekeepers and store way nuts and holes in the trees
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: or in the ground. Chipmunks do the same, and some birds,
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: as nutcrackers and blue jays, high nuts in the same way.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: Often these nuts are forgotten, or else the little creatures
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: that hid them may die or be killed. Then the
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: nuts that have been put in the ground have nothing
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: to do but grow when spring warms the earth. You see,
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: they have been planted by the little nut lovers that
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: certainly had no intention of planting them. No doubt a
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: great many nut trees get started in this way. Hickory
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: nuts are often called walnuts in New England. The hickory
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: tree belongs to North America, and before this continent was discovered,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: only the Indians enjoyed hickory nuts. Now they are sent
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: to England, and indeed all over the world. The wood
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: of the hickory is hard, tough, and flexible, and is
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: very valuable. Andrew Jackson was called Old Hickory because of
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: his unyielding nature, and when you study the history of
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: the United States, or read the life of Jackson, you
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: will not wonder that he was so named. Hickory switches
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: were used long ago when children were naughty. They were
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: preferred to willow because they did not break so easily.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: A better use to put hickory to is to burn it.
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: Hickory logs make a very hot and beautiful fire, and
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: hickory is one of the best woods to burn in
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: a fireplace. And a chapter twenty nine, Chapter thirty of
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Walnuts and butternuts black walnuts grow
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: on large, handsome trees, a very hard, fragrant, dark colored wood.
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: Walnut wood used to be prized more highly than it
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: is to day for furniture, and the inside finished to houses.
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: It takes a fine polish, but grows rather dark and
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: somber looking with age. The black walnut is a native
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: of the eastern part of North America. It belongs to
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: the same family as the hickory, and like that, bears
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: two kinds of flowers. The nuts have hard, thick, black shells,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: and also a softer outer covering or rind that is
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: very bitter and disagreeable to the taste, and that stains
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: the fingers a dark brown. The meat or kernel of
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: the walnut is very oily, and some people do not
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: like it because of its rather strong flavor. Squirrels are
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: fond of walnuts, however, and often plant them in the
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: way we have seen. The English walnut is an asiatic
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: tree belonging to the same family, which has been cultivated
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: in Europe and to a small extent in this country.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: Its nut is larger than the black walnut, has a
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: thin shell and a large sweet current. The nut is
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: delicious and a great favorite at Christmas time. It is
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: sometimes picked green and pickled, and some people are very
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: fond of pickled walnuts. The nut yields an abundance of
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: valuable oil, and the wood of the tree is very
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: beautiful and useful for many purposes, one of which is
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: to finish houses on the inside, and another to make gunstalks.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: There is another tree belonging to the same family that
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: grows in America and looks very much like the black
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: walnut tree. It is the butternut. Butternut wood is valuable,
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: and butternuts have sweet, oily kernels that most people like.
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: The flowers, of course, are like those of the walnut.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: A brown dye is made from the inner bark of
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: the butternut tree, and also a medicine is obtained from it.
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: During the War of the Rebellion, the Southern soldiers were
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: often dressed in homespun clothes dyed by the bark of
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: the butternut, and on this account they were called butternuts
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: and a Chapter thirty Chapter thirty one of The Little
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: the public domain. The chestnut. The chestnut is a very
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: large and beautiful tree that grows abundantly in some parts
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: of New England and over the Allegheny Mountains. Children always
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: know the chestnut trees if they live near them. Like
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: the hickory and walnut. The chestnut has its staminant flowers
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: in catkins, but these are white instead of green, and
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: give the chestnut a very handsome appearance when they cover
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: it with airy plumes. In the early summer, the nuts
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: grow in prickly birrs, two or three in a burr.
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: When the nuts are ripe in the fall, the burrs
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: open to let them out. As everyone knows they have
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: a thin shell and a sweet kernel. They are sometimes
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: boiled and sometimes eaten raw. Squirrels, chipmunks, and some birds
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: are fond of them and are often the means of
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: planting them. Chestnut wood is soft and has rather a coarse,
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: loose grain. It is used largely for fence rails, cheap shingles,
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: and railroad ties. Chestnuts grow in some parts of Europe
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: and Asia, and there is one kind that bears a
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: nut as large as a black walnut. This nut is
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: not as sweet as our chestnuts, but it is extensively
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: used as food in some parts of Europe. The people
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: go in families to gather the nuts and prize them
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: as we pries wheat and corn. End of chapter thirty
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: one Chapter thirty two of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley.
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox, according is in the public domain. Other edible seeds,
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: there are other nuts, like the pecan, whose tree belongs
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: to the hickory family and grows wild in the southern
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: part of the United States, the beech nut, which grows
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: on a stately tree of our forests, and the hazel
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: nut that grows on bushes, in thickets, near streams, sometimes
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: or on the borders of woods. But squirrels, chipmunks, birds,
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: and such folk are not the only ones that plant seeds.
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: Some ants do. Indeed, ants are great hands to plant seeds.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: They do not take the hard nuts, but rather the
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: seeds of certain grasses in other plants that bear rather
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: small seeds. The ants carry the seeds into their holes,
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: where they sometimes eat only one part of the seed,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: not enough to herd it in the least, and so
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: the seeds buried in the ant hills are able to grow.
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: Ants often drop the seeds they are carrying and lose them,
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: and so the road to the home of the seed
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: eating ants is often grown over by plants the ants
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: have sown. In chapter thirty two Chapter thirty three of
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Berries. Some berries, such as raspberries
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: and strawberries, are so good that they seem to grow
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: on purpose to be eaten. Very likely they do. It
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: is quite necessary for the BlackBerry and raspberry bushes to
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: have their seeds sown at some distance from the parent plants,
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: and it is also an advantage to strawberries to have
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: their seeds dispersed. So what is better than to get
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: the help of birds to this end. The berries are
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: sweet and juicy when ripe, and they are bright in
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: color so that the birds can easily find them. A
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: bird often picks a berry and carries it somewhere else
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: to eat, and often it eats only apart and leaves
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: the rest, which falls to the ground. All berries have
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: seeds in them or outside of them. Strawberries have the
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: little seeds on the outside, as you can easily see. Gooseberries, currants,
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: and grapes have the little seeds inside. But whichever way
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: it is, some of the seeds will be left or
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: scattered about by birds that eat the berries. If some
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: of the seeds are swallowed, that does not seem to
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: hurt them, like the mistletoe seeds. They are able to
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: sprout after having been eaten by a bird. Birds eat
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: a great many kinds of berries that we never think
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: of eating. Notice how often in the late summer and
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: the autumn you will see bright red or blue, or
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: black or white berries shining out from the leaves or
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: bare branches of the wayside hedges. All of these are
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: eaten by birds and carried away to new growing places.
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: Not all birds eat berries or seeds. Watch the birds
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: and see if you can find out which kinds eat
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: berries and seeds and of chapter thirty three, chapter thirty
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: four of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This LibriVox
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Cherries. There is no
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: need of describing cherries, as everybody knows them well. The
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: birds are so fond of ripe cherry berries that we
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: sometimes have difficulty in getting our share before the robins
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: and thrushes have taken. All birds frequently fly away with
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: the cherry, eat the pulp, and drop the stone, which
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: of course contains a seed, And this seed then often
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: sprouts and grows into a cherry tree. We sometimes find
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: good cherries growing in hedges and thickets far from the orchard.
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: These have been planted there by the birds. The sweet
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: cherry is not a native of this country, but was
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: brought here from Europe. We have a number of wild cherries, however,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: whose fruit we do not esteem, but the birds are
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: fond of it, and they are the means of planting
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: a good many wild cherry trees over the country. Plums, peaches,
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: and apricots are delicious fruits with hard shelled seeds. The
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: fruit is gathered, the pulp eaten, and the stone thrown away.
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: We do not eat the seed of the plum, peach,
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: and cherry, as we do that of the hickory and butternut.
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: We throw it away, and thus disperse the seed children
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: of these fruit trees. The birds spread the seeds of
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: the wild plums, as they do those of the cherries.
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: The kernels of all these seeds are bitter and contain
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: a very poisonous substance. Cherry trees have beautiful white blossoms
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: that come early in the spring, and the peach trees
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: have lovely pink blossoms. The peaches bloom the earliest of all,
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: and their flowers come out before the leaves. They turn
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: the world into a maze of pink beauty in the
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: parts where the peach orchards are and to chapter thirty
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: four chapter thirty five of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warren Morally.
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Apples. Apples
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: have tough cores in which their somewhat delicate seeds are protected.
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: When we eat apples, we throw the cores away. We
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: now know that this is just what the apple wants.
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: If the core is tossed into a hedge by the roadside,
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: its seeds may get a chance to sprout, and indeed
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: they often do. For in the country we often come
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: upon apple trees in out of the way corners where
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: they were not planted by man on purpose. Apples do
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: not grow wild in this country, excepting crab apples, no doubt.
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: The birds carry away the ripe crab apples and drop
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: the cores. Pears and quinces have cores like the apple,
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: and they are not natives of this country. But we're
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: broad here because of their delicious fruit. Sometimes we find
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: them growing wild, and we know how this happened. The
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: next time we get a chance, let us look for
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: the fruit trees the birds have planted there. Are a
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: good many wild fruits that the birds are fond of,
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: and whose seeds they are in the habit of dispersing
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: over broad sections of country and of chapter thirty five,
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: chapter thirty six of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley.
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Seeds that
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: are shot away Oxalis. Some plants have a way of
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: shooting their seeds out of the pods. You know about
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: the squirting cucumber. The little sheep sorrel or yellow flowered
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: Oxalis that grows everywhere in the fields and gardens has
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: a way of shooting off its seeds when they are ripe.
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: There is an elastic covering over each seed, and when
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: the pod opens, this covering splits and suddenly curls up
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: with force enough to send the seed quite a distance.
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: The leaves of the Oxalis are sour, and children sometimes
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: eat them. A very powerful poison can be extracted from them,
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: which is called oxalic acid, and sometimes salt of lemons,
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: but there is not enough of this poison in the
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: leaves to make them harmful to eat. The poison, when
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: obtained in large quantities, is useful in the manufacture of calico,
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: where it is used in printing the colors, and it
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: is also sometimes used in a diluted form to clean
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: metal work. Be sure to look for the seed pods
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: of the oxalis. They stand up like little candles and
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: are very pretty. Gather some that are almost ripe and
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: see how they shoot their seeds. End to chapter thirty
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: six Chapter thirty seven of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley.
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Which Hazel.
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: This little tree blossoms in the fall of the year,
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: after the leaves are gone, and sometimes after the snow
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: has come. It stands in the edge of the woods,
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: dressed in a fairy costume of yellow lace like flowers.
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: After the flowers come the pods. They are very hard
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: and horny and do not ripen until the next fall.
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: It is fun to gather ripe witch hazel pods, for
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: when they have been in the house a little while
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: and have become thoroughly dry, they go off. You may
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: be sitting by the table reading when pop, a hard, shining,
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: little black seed strikes you in the face. It is
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: the witch hazel beginning its cannonade pop, spat crack, The
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: battery has opened, and the seeds are flying with great
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: force in all directions. They are sometimes shot several yards
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: of course in the woods. This shooting is intended to
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: start the seed children on their journey in the world.
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: The witch hazel pod bursts open, and the edges turn
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: in and press against the smooth seeds with great force,
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: so that when they leave the pod, they fly as
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: though shot out of a sling. Get some witch hazel
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: pods and see how they do it. Another name for
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: witch hazel is Hamamilus, and from the bark is made
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: a medicine which is put upon bruises. A forked twig
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: of witch hazel is sometimes used as a divining rod
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: to find where to dig for water or for gold
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: or silver or other metals. The rod is held in
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: the fingers of the diviner who walks about, and wherever
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: the rod turns and points down it is supposed to
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: be the place to dig. Divining rods are not much
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: used these days. People are not as superstitious in some
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: ways as they used to be, and they know the
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: rod cannot help them. And of chapter thirty seven Chapter
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: thirty eight of Little Wanderers by Margaret Warner Morley. This
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Touch Me Not.
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: The touch me Not or snapweed is a delicate little
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: plant that grows in at places. Its yellow flowers are
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: aily poised on slender stems, and the seed pods are
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: very curious. If one of them is touched, it goes
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: off with a suddenness that is startling until one gets
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: used to it. When the pods are ripe, they shoot
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: the seeds out in all directions, and if you disturb
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: a tangle of touch me nots in the late summer,
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: you can hear the seeds popping on all sides. There's
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: a violet that shoots the seeds out of its pod,
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: and the wild geranium pod swings its seeds to some
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: distance by suddenly curling up on its long stalk. A
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: good many seed pods have this interesting habit, but I
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: doubt if you would discover that some peas and beans
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: do this unless you were told. The loopin, which belongs
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: to the pea family, shoots off its seeds by twisting
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: the dry pod as it opens to let them out.
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: Even our garden sweet peas and some of our garden
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: beans do this. Watch to see if you can catch
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: them at it. Plants have many, many ways of sending
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: their precious seed children out in the world to find
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: a growing place. There is no better way to spend
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: our spare time than to watch the ripe fruits of
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: plants and find out how the seeds are dispersed. Nearly
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: all plants have some method of sending their seeds abroad.
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: You will enjoy the plants more than ever when you
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: begin to discover for yourself some of the things they do.
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: End a chapter thirty eight and of Little Wanderers by
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: Margaret Warner Morley