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Show for a year, and yet they did not absorb a drop But If they are planted in the fall. thev will sprout In the first or second spring following. One seed was given to a tame grav squirrel. He drilled a smalt hole through the shell, but dropped the seed as soon as he had reached the meat. "The tree, although one of our rarer forest trees, is found from Pennsylvania to the Indian Territory, but It grows in small colonies, often miles apart. It is found on rich bottom lands and on islands in large lakes. It may be that grouse occasionally swallow the seeds as they swallow pebbles, for it seems Impossible that the seeds could reach islands without with-out the aid of some bird. It is likely that the passenger pigeons In days gone by distributed the seeds of the coffee tree. "A small cactus, the jointed opuntia, is widely distributed in arid regions from New Mexico northward. In some mysterious mysteri-ous way it has reached many dry, rocky ledges in humid Minnesota and Wisconsin. Wiscon-sin. A few years ago, while on a canoe trip on I,ake of the Woods, a scientist found a fresh joint of this cactus among the boulders of the Ontario shore, in a densely wooded region. How the plant reached this spot has remained a secret." 4 : 4 Hovj Plants Travel ! M j By Frederic J. Hask:n. i . ; WA?H:XOT-- Oct. CT. The way? Ui ! wh:.--h pi.r.; i A a.'vu: :he wnr'.c, g-?t- ; t::.g i;.;o -or:s I s . ' :a; ;ons wh.-re "',l v.v--,:'d i.ir exe. . to t'lr.d th-'::i. is one , of the j hci-.'i plant iire whica si.il A sr.-c.-.! m .:.iv rf plant travels has j 1m. r, i.:Kie by L. Lan:ie. a wcll-knwn . !; '-.arr-', n;;o recent. y vi:i:ed the Anu-r-i.'.l:: Fc re.-try ; -sociJ-iion. In his study; oi' ri:-nt, Mr. Lv.i.o has been in almo-'t j every part i the vo:d. He -has nude , e-i".-ek--' !!y v:'.j;.ibl . b? .-rvations of the va.iti:-' n'.i; lu'-.s ii Sk-d distribution, and has :M.;d.."a a number oi now plants to the W- ''ii.'- I..-;. About a Quarur of a ml 'lion different k:.:tis "f pi ;:r. s arc now known to sci-enre, sci-enre, M: L:n:ce says. Tiit? identification identifica-tion of this dh.t.ui'iiis number represents the labor of ; houi-ands of scientists. In the da ys of Linnac us, but ten thousand j varieties had been identified. Mr. Lan-.;c thinks of the world as a great gartu-n of piants. He describes America viwdly in terms of its plant life. Did you evt ; think of it that way? "Eefcre white men found America," said Mr. Lanue. "ihe eastern half of tne cunt in on t v.a s one great forest of hardwoods, hard-woods, centering in the Ohio valley. "This for :-st consisted of an association of many spe.ies, and it stretched almost with ;-.:vnk from the Atlantic coast to western Minnesota. "North of this broad-leaved forest ex-t.nded ex-t.nded a belt of evergreens to the limit; of trees into subarctic regions, and west- j ward to the treeless plains. In its south- I ern region the white and Norway pines . re the dominant trees. They grew., taller and lived longer than any other t species, and where fires or storms had not , interfered for a century or two they had crowded out every other kind. "From Illinois to the foothills of the Rocky mountains stretched the largest grassy meadows of the world, known as the i-iairies. "The question why these great fertile regions remained treeless is not easily answered. Over a part of the prairies the rainfall is insufficient to meet the great need of trees for water. Nearly all the prairie grasses and flowers are perennials, peren-nials, well fitted to resist annual or occasional oc-casional severe droughts. Nor could millions of grazing buffaloes and the fires started by lightning or by primitive man harm the underground rootstock of these piants. To seedling trees, however, a fire means almost certain destruction. "Leaving out of consideration here the rather complex ploblem of plant distribution distri-bution over the Black hills, the Rocky mountains and the Great Basin, we reach on the Sierra, the Olympic and the Cascade Cas-cade mountains the grandest and most remarkable forest of the world, which stretches from California northward to the limit of trees in Alaska, through more than two thousand miles of latitude. lati-tude. "From California to Puget sound is a forest of enormous redwoods, yellow pines, Douglas firs, western hemlock and other evergreens, including the remarkable remark-able isolated groves of giant sequoias containing trees of almost incredible size and age. And not only the great sequoias, se-quoias, but also the redwoods and firs are giante, often reaching a height of two hundred feet. In these forests the little Douglas squirrel and a number of small birds live permanently in the tree tops and can only be studied through telescopes. "In extent, in density, in the kinds and size of their trees, these forest have no rivals on our planet. "The length of life among plants varies even more than among animals. - "The edible inky mushroom produces its umbrella-shaped column overnight. A few .days later the whole plant has deliquesced into a patch of black ink, and within a week not a trace is left of its existence. "The giant sequoia, on tho other hand, has outlived the great empires of human history, enjoying a vigorous growth for three or four thousand years. No fungus or insect pest is able to harm it. Its top reaches three hundred and fifty feet toward the sky. and if storms, lightning and resulting fires did not at last bring it down it seems that it might live and grow forever. And when, in the end, the giant trunk has crashed to earth among the smaller trees surrounding it, a long depression in the soil tells of the big tree centuries after forest fires have consumed the enormous mass of sound wood, to which fungus, insects and the tooth of time could do no harm. Some of the giants . still growing in Mariposa park were already big trees, as New Engla nd measures trees, when Abraham pastured his flocks in Palestine. "Curious and many are tho methods of traveling adopted by plants. Most plants can, of course, travel only as seeds, a 1 though there are a few exceptions to this rule. "The advantage of the first comer, the squatter, one might say. plays an important impor-tant part in the world of plant life. The cotton -tufted seeds of willows and poplars pop-lars and the little winged seeds of the white birch are carried by the wind in every direction, and they are produced in such abundance that every nook and patch of- bare - soil receives its supply. The result is that.theso trees generally reach vacant land sooner than any of their competitors. The bare mud-fiat left by a flood, tho railroad gravel pit, the burnt-o'ver and cnt-over pine forests are nearly always pre-empted by willows, poplars or birches because their seeds are much more widely disseminated than the, seeds of any other northern trees. Poplars and birches, however, are shortlived short-lived trees, and within a century the dominant pines will supplant them. "Shrubs and trees, as well as vines and herbs, that depend on birds for the dissemination dis-semination of their seeds run the wind-planted wind-planted species a close race. Woodbine and iwl d grapes, dogwood and hack-berry, hack-berry, wild cherries and plums, strawberries straw-berries and raspberries spring up as if by magic as soon as the lumberman, fire or storm has cleared the ground for them. "Of many plants it is not very difficult to discover their methods of traveling. "The seed of maple, pine and dandelion sail like parachutes away from the parent par-ent plant. Tho gold -dotted hedges of jewel weed, or touch-me-not, which mirror mir-ror their delicate flowers and foliage in the dirk, silent wa ter of northern beaver ponds are planted by the beavers themselves as they travel and work on their dams; while birds in their dailv and seasonal flights plant those rT-'va-u-h'e gardens of many kinds of wild fruit, whoso presence on widely separated inlands in-lands and mountains and in the depth of isolated canyons delights both the eye and the raiate of the explorer. "There are., however, numerous Instances In-stances of plant distribution which present pre-sent most interesting puzzles to naturalists natu-ralists and foresters. "One of the most puzzling cases of plant migration or distribution is that of the devil's club. This plant is a common com-mon shrub in the moist forests of the Pacific coast and In certain localities In the Rocky mountains, where, on account of its countless sharp spines it is the te rror of the woodsmen and t'mher cruisers. It is not found in the forests touching the G'eat Lakes, except in sav-e1--! pro's of Tslf P.ova'e in r ?.ke Surer'or. Tlow it traversed the intervening thouad miles of plain and. forest and esfa'nish"d itse;f on an 'sland in Lake Superior is ha-d to imagine. "One possible solution must not be ove-:ooVed in S"ch cases as that of the devil's club. T'r ev mav be ca s-s of a r-rman t vegetation, just as sa terd sroves of riant sequo;as are undo" btedlv only the remnants of former large se:;uo'a forests. "The case of the Kentuckv ccfTe tree hns Veen a mys-iry ever since its od. bUmtlv-eniliiic 1 r. inches woe found on a winter ramble in a Min' osota woods The tree bf.irs In rue bean'ik pods, contain con-tain inr b!g hard-rh-illert seeds ivsembiins somc.vlnl in aprc3 ra ne ro i3ted roffee is a.i u.-.ro'wd pro' The iTea i po ; . i "ii -in on ?':v 1 iv. a tiiro,:-h f,e -v ntor. ; X -iiho- t"0 rods nor the i . tlo'M I': vat-r aiid a:o of ronrs-'. nu; v, ti-o eavy to 1 c irricd i v ':.e wind. The seeds areas are-as I. aid as po'iM- :;, and, as far as c n bo discovered, no M-ds or animals eat them A dozen of them were placed in watr,r |
