SEEDS: Pop. Stick. Glide

The many ways that plants have found to scatter their seeds is the subject of this photo-catalogue, which considers different plants in an order determined by whether the seeds stick to moving animals and people, as burdock, Queen Anne's lace, pin oak, and others do, or travel with the wind (the poppy, dandelion, and milkweed) or the water (coconut, water lily), or shoot off with a pop (violet, witch hazel, touch-me-not). For each of some 20 plants, Lauber describes the process and points out the flower, fruit, and seed--all expertly illustrated in Wexler's text-enlarging photos. An afterword looks more closely at seeds in general, from the union of egg and pollen to the new plant that grows from a sprouted seed. Not an untapped subject, but well done.