SEEDS THAT HOP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

SEEDS THAT HOP.

By ELSIE PUT WAIN, 24, Russell Street, Stanley Bay (age 10 years). Have you ever seen fern seeds hopping about ? If you rub some (lust, which is really the seeds from tho under-sido of fern leaves on to white paper and watch it through a microscope, you can seo it hop about ns if. it were really alive. Each little seed is' really a pod, and when the pods burst, tho seeds scatter and spring in the air. Another interesting experiment is to make spore-prints from mushrooms or toadstools. Pick the mushroom just before it is ripe, cut off the stem, and place it, gills down, on a piece of clean paper. Next morning you will find a beautiful spore-print. Some prints show best on white paper, and some on black, but you will hardly ever find two alike.

Many young plants can be grown from slips or cuttings from old ones, but the begonia is one which can bo grown from a singlo leaf. If you cut the veins through in several places and pin the leaf down to the soil a new baby begonia plant will ariso at every cut. When they get largo enough they can be separated and planted out, and will then grow into full-sized, flowering plants, resembling their parents. I love nature study, arid like to learn new and interesting things about plants and flowers.