' How Life is Lived '-5
' The Flower and the Fruit'
DORIS L. MACKINNON , D.Sc., Professor of Zcology, King's College, University of London
Today Professor Doris Mackinnon is to describe the plan of a flower. She will explain how the seed is formed and how it is carried to earth. How the poppy pods burst and its seeds go flying in a circle round it, how the fluff of the thistle, even more lucky, floats off on the air to land where it has growing space-perhaps three fields away-to the farmer's despair.
His man digs them up ; squirrels eat the acorn ; boys and girls-don't deny it-hurtle up sticks and bring down the ' conker ', flower seeds fall so profusely that they crowd each other to death. Yet, for all the odds against them-frosts, slugs, nibbling rabbits-plants survive. Some survive on the principle that if a thousand seeds germinate, one may live. Others survive in curious ways. Have you ever thought how the mistletoe comes to be growing on the oak bough thirty feet from the ground ?
Birds, wind, insects-all mobile things-each plays a part in carrying on the race of the plant that grows helpless, its roots stuck in the earth.