The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-12-14
THE FLIGHT OF THE SEEDS
How Nature Does Her Best to Keep
the Earth Fruitful
THE CUNNING TRICKS SHE EN-
PLOYS.
Manna-The Rose of Jerico-Mimic Exp1o-
sions-The Shooting of seeds-Their
Range-The Parachute.

sIons-The Shooting of seeds-Their
Range-The Parachute.
IN. Y. Times.)
| To Darwin is not due the discovery of
the dispersion of seeds by birds, but the
particular attention which he directed to
it. There are many things in nature
which occur in the simplest manner, as
Darwin is always endeavoring to show
us. Though there is much in natural
history which is still complex, some Of
the solutions of former vexed problems
astonish us when we do not go too far out
OF the way to discover the reasons
Darwin examined the foot of water
| fowl He soraped off the caked mud, or
dirt, and he then put the dirt in a garden
pot, with all precautions, so that nothing
else could be present. He had just ga
ounces of mud, and 10! 537 plants germi-
| mated. That experiment, crucial one,
showed conclusively how there was dis
persion of species by means of fruits and
seeds 1t was the water fowl which was
the transporting medium. But it is not
| alone by means of a bird wading in the
| soft ooze of pond and winging it's way
to another pond, with its feet holding
| the seeds of water plants, that dispersion
| takes place. Birds may eat seeds and
these seeds may be taken undigested from
their crop, or voided, with the germs still
| alive, and propagation Of species be again
carried on Many years ago wild goose
was killed at the mouth Of the ST. Law
renee, and from it's distended crop few
grains of a peculiar-looking seed were
taken. In haphazard way some of these
seeds were faanted, and very remarka-
BILE species of wheat was grown.
In the second part of comprehensive
volume having for title 1.-THE Natural
History of Plants, translated from the
&c rman of Anton Ksrner Won Marilaun,
the celebrated Professor OF Botany in the
University of Vienna, and published by
Henry Holt & Co. of New York, the au-
thor devotes several chapters to this most
interesting sub ect, the dispensing of
species by the wind, by the water, and
by means of animals. It may be remem-
bered how happily Mr.. Hamilton Gibson
has treated this matter, principally in
regard to our own American varieties of
plants.
Strangely enough there are some of the
lichens which call upon the water for
their better dispersion and even ask the
help Of the wind. What is called Lecanora
esculeuta makes this double call. 1t is
plant growing on the steppes, and some
of the species are found in the Sahara and
the deserts of Algeria, where there is
hardly any rain. 1t grows on the stones,
having the greatest liking for limestone.
When ripe it has yellowish gray crust,
and when the crust is broken the inside
looks farinaceous. The ripened crusts
break of and then a portion rolls on itself.
These loose pieces are then ca lily blown
about by the wind. AS they are not
heavy, many of them are carried away
into the air by heavy blast of wind.
Then they lodge, when the wind ceases,
on the stones. The rain comes after the
dry season, moves them many miles
further, SO that. t on the stones, they
may grow again AS often as not the
mama licfen is found serviceable as food
for man, and this is specially the case,
says Prof. Won Marilaun, Sin the steppe
region and the high lands of Southwest
Asia, where the mama lichen is used as
a substitute for corn in years of famine. /"
The farinaceous part is taken and made
into bread. Mamma then no longer falls
from heaven. 1t was formerly believed
that the Biblical mama sent to the
Holy Land was the sap OF a tamarisk,
put on sweet, inspid substance, with
q very slight proportion of starchy matter
in it, the Jews would have starved AS
we know. the mama of the apothecary is
slightly purgative. We have then every
reason 10 suppose that it was this lichen
which furnished food to the wandering
Israelites.
Nothing can be more beautiful than the
adjustment of the spores of the horsetail
(Equisetum telmateja) to its require
ments. According to circumstances,
when it is ready to propagate its kind,
it ADOPTS two forms, or shows powers OF
adaptation. AS the plant ripens, the
spores take on two arms, which are
formed something like a cross. Then the
wind catches these wings of the spore and
carries it off. Say the spore falls in
dry place. Ii would wither and dry there
1t does not want to become a fixture ar
sterile. 1t is intent on the pre- serravtion
of its life. 1t awaits another puff of the
wind. 1t is picked up and away it sails
in the air. But the next time it falls it
is on moist ground. AT once the new
condition of moisture suits it. The four