broadcast the second and third years, and the fourth harvest produced
forty quarters of sound grain. A fine purple-topped Swedish turnip
produced 100,296 grains, which was seed enough for five imperial acres,
and thus, in three years, one turnip would produce seed enough for Great
Britain for a year.--_Quarterly Journal of Agriculture._

_Why are winds the great agents by which seeds are diffused?_

Because seeds are, as it were, provided with various wings for seizing on
the breeze. The thistle and dandelion are familiar examples of this mode
of dissemination. "How little," Sir J.E. Smith observes, "are children
aware, as they blow away the seeds of dandelion, or stick burs in sport
upon each other's clothes, that they are fulfilling one of the great ends
of nature." Dr. Woodward calculates, that one seed of the common spear
thistle will produce "at the first crop, twenty-four thousand, and
consequently five hundred and twenty-six millions of seeds, at the second."

Some plants discharge their seeds. Thus, a certain fungus has the property
of ejecting its seeds with great force and rapidity, and with a loud
cracking noise, and yet it is no bigger than a pin's head!

_Why is a milky fluid found in the cocoa-nut?_

Because in this case, as well as in a few others, all the fluids destined
to nourish the embryo of the fruit does not harden, whence a greater or
less quantity of this kind of mild emulsion is contained within the kernel.

_Why are certain eatable roots unfit for the table when the plants have
flowered?_