Johnny-Jump-Up: Lesson 2

Yellow pansies in bloom at vernal pools in California.

Little winsome friendly flowers,
"How do you do? How do you do? 
Changing gloom to cheerful bowers,
"Much, much better for seeing you."

       Not many insects visit Johnny-Jump-Up. Perhaps they find her honey too hard to reach. The few that do call upon her must be fine helpers, for Johnny makes a great deal of seed. Every seed seems a good healthy one. You have seen how the golden beds on the hillside grow larger every year. Do you know how the seeds get scattered?

       If you look at the seed-case, you see it is shaped like a long egg. Cut it across. There are in it three rows of seeds arranged down the middle. When those little seeds are ripe and ready to be scattered, what do you think happens? You will have to watch a Johnny-Jump-Up bed to find out. Perhaps if you put some stems bearing ripe seed-cases in a glass of water in a sunny window, they may act in the same way they do outside.

       As the seed-case dries, it pinches the seeds. Every sunny hour it pinches them a little harder. Then, it splits open from the top. It spreads out into three parts. Each part looks like a tiny canoe with a row of balls down the middle. As the bottom of this canoe gets drier and drier, it pinches the seeds harder and harder. Finally, the seeds cannot stand that pinch one moment longer. Out they pop. If you pinch an apple seed between your fingers, you will see how Johnny-Jump-Up's seeds act.

       Out they pop, out from the safe home seed-case into the big unknown World. Sometimes they go far; sometimes, near. Perhaps one seed pops out as Old Rover is passing and lands flop on his back. Some day Old Rover will roll on the ground and then that Johnny-Jump-Up seed will find a new home.

       Perhaps one seed pops down to the ground just in front of Mrs. Big Black Ant.  ''H-m-m,''she wrinkles up her nose. ''That smells just like what we need for dessert to-night.''

       She catches hold of the little end of the seed and trundles it home. Now, the Big Black Ant Family eat some seeds as we eat cherries. They swallow a little of the outside and throw away the seed germ. So that little Johnny-Jump-Up seed has a good chance to grow in a new spot.

       Perhaps another seed pops out as a Strong Wind is passing. Off it sails until Strong Wind stops to get a new breath. Then, it drops down with a bang. Little it cares for bangs, as long as it gets to a bit of good soft earth.

       Some seeds have bad luck. They fall on hard ground or perhaps on the State Highway. They can find no soft earth to creep under so they wither up in the warm sunshine. Others are eaten whole, outside, inside and all, by some starving insect. But even with these losses, Johnny-Jump-Up gets a great number of seeds scattered to start new plants.

       Don't you wish we human beings were born knowing just how to live our lives? We have to be taught everything. How to feed ourselves, how to dress ourselves, even how to get around.

       This is not so with Young Seed. When she falls on the ground, she lies awhile in the warm sunshine. Then the dew or the fog or the rain makes her seek shelter. She works herself down under the loose earth into a warm nest. Here she lies quiet until the raindrops find her.

       ''You'd better grow up. You'd better grow up,'' they whisper. They patter around her, always keeping time to their song, ''You'd better grow up. You'd better grow up.''

       After a while, Johnny-Jump-Up seed thinks she'd better. She is not quite sure she can stand up in that cheerful place the happy raindrops come from. She sends out little roots that will hold her steady, just as we, when we are camping, put ropes to hold our tent steady. These little roots are better than tent ropes. They drink up food from the earth for Johnny-Jump-Up seed. We never expect our tent ropes to bring us food, do we?

       Then she sends up a tiny stem to the earth's surface. She thinks she likes that fresh air, so she sends out two pale leaves to try it. They are all rolled up at first lest the air be cold. The sun's rays warm them and they open wide. The sun encourages them, and the whole plant stretches up into beautiful golden flowers that reflect the sun's glory. Then, they make their seed and the plants life circle is completed.

       Even if there was a total loss of seed one year, we would still have some Johnny-Jump-Ups the next. The plant does not die when the flowers and leaves disappear from the top of the ground. The root stock below ground is still alive and strong. It lies resting until the early rains come and coax it to send up new leaves. You will find it a tough root, built in the same way the stem is. You can dig it up carefully and transplant it to your garden.

       Johnny-Jump-Up has several sisters also natives of California. I am sure that you know more than one of them. They wear different colored gowns: white, yellow, blue, or purple. They have different markings. They shape their leaves differently. Some choose sunny spots, while others hide in the shade. Not one rises as tall as Johnny-Jump-Up does nor smiles so sunnily. But they all make their corollas the same shape. They all make their seeds in the same way. They all scatter them in the same way. The violets and the pansies in your Mother's garden scatter their seeds in this way. Just watch them.

       It is a plant's life work to make good seeds and to get them scattered afar. The plant that knows how to make the best seed and how to get it farthest off does the best work. Just from watching our fields, we know that our dear friend, Johnny-Jump-Up is a successful worker. She makes me think of a verse we used to have to learn in school when I was a little girl.

Let us then be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait. Longfellow.

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