l at the mercy of the winds.
Such a plant is especially at home on prairies or cleared fields,
where there are few large obstructions and where the wind has free
access.

The mother plant, now dead, toiled busily during the heat of summer
and produced thousands of little seeds. The best portion of her
substance went to produce these seeds, giving each a portion of rich
food for a start in life and wrapping each in a glossy black coat.
Now she is ready to sacrifice the rest of her body to be tumbled about,
broken in pieces, and scattered in every direction for the good of
her precious progeny, most of whom will find new places, where they
will stand a chance the next summer to grow into plants. Sometimes
the winds are not severe enough or long enough continued, and these
old skeletons are rolled into ditches, piled so high in great rows
or masses against fences that some are rolled over the rest and pass
on beyond. Occasionally some lodge in the tops of low trees, and many
are entangled by straggling bushes. In a day or two, or in a week,
or a month, the shifting wind may once more start these wrecks in
other directions, to be broken up and scatter seeds along their
pathway.

During the Middle Ages in southern Egypt and Arabia, and eastward,
a small plant, with most of the peculiarities of our tumbleweed just
described, was often seen, and was thought to be a great wonder. It
was called the "rose of Jericho," though it is not a rose at all,
but a first cousin to the mustard, and only a small affair at that,
scarcely as large as a cabbage head. A number of other plants of this
habit are well known on dry plains in various parts of the world;
one of the most prominent in the northern United States is called
the Russian thistle, which was introduced from Russia with flaxseed.
In Dakota, often two, three, or more grow into a community, making
when dry and mature a stiff ball two to three feet or more in diameter.

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Mature dry plant of Russian thistle as a
tumbleweed. (One-seventh natural size.)]

One of our peppergrasses, _Lepidium intermedium_, sometimes attains
the size and shape of a bushel basket; when ripe, it is blown about,
sowing seeds wherever it goes. The plants of the evening primrose
sometimes do likewise, also a spurge, _Euphorbia_ [_Preslii_]
_nutans_, a weed a foot to a foot and a half high.

Low hop clover, an annual with yellow flowers, which has been
naturalized from Europe, h