The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-24
NATURE SEED PLANTING
GREAT MOTHERS PROVISION
 FOR SPREAD
or Earth's Verdure--The Magic Ease With Whioh She RerObes Desolated eundiiy--W Winged Bits of Life.

Regions Birds as Ministers of Fe-
 eundiiy-Winged Bits of Life.
 Nature" says the Autocrat of the
 Breakfast Table, always has her pock-
 cts full of seeds and. holes in all her
 pockets" Certain itis that that nature
 spares no pains in providing for the
 perpetuation of plant-organs. Every
 wild plant furnishes myriads of seeds,
 full allowance being made for waste
 and loss, and so effective are the
 means used in their distribution and
 planting that a very few years are suf-
 ficient to spread a new variety over
 wide areas.
 During the glacial period the ice
 masses which plowed the continents
 bore with them seeds and roots. The
 rivers and ocean currents took up the
 work, bearing abroad the seeds of diff
 ferent attitudes In Louisiana and Mis-
 sissippi the flora peculiar to the Rocky
 Mountain heights, where the Missouri
 has it's source, 4000 miles away, find
 lpdgment oh the shores of the Mississp-
 pi river and flourish under the beams
 of the glowing mi-tropical sun. On
 the western coasts of Ireland and Eng
 land are found the plants of the plains
 of the Amazon and the Orinoco, the
 West Indies and Florida, borne across
 the Atlantic by the current of the gulf
 stream.
 The volcanic eruptions in the island
 of Java in 1883 furnished a remarkable
 illustration of the faculty with which
 nature is able to replant with vegetable
 life a desolated region. The center of
 the disturbance was the island volcano
 of Krakatoa, which sent forth floods of
 molten lava and burning ashes, so that
 every living thing, whether animal or
 vegetable, was destroyed The island in the words of an observer, was red hot" Only four years after this event a naturalist, visiting this spot, found that nature, unassisted by man. had | stocked the island with 246 varieties of plants The winds, the waves, and the | birds had been the only agents.
 The birds do a great share in this | work. Mir Darwin found by examina- ton that particles of earth adhering to | the feet of migrating birds generally | contain seeds From a ball of earth | carefully removed from the leg of wounded partridge he raised eighty-two plants of five different species From | six and three quarters ounces of earth gathered from the feet of birds which frequent the shores of lakes and ponds he raised, under glass, no less than 537 plants. The plumage of migrating birds also contain many kinds of seed which adheres to them as. they stop to feed or to sleep on their way to distant lands. Many seeds are carried in the stomach of herbivorous animals, and thus make long journeys.
 Some years ago, after an unusual prevalence of high winds from the north, the Canada thistle made it's ap- pearance in localities from the Dakotas to the Gulf of Mexico. The wheat fields of the Northwest and the cotton and sugar plantations of the South were all planted by the winds with this un- welcome immigrant.
 There are many seeds which, like the depend almost entirely upon the winds for transmission and dstribu ton. Some of them, as the maple and $ the ash have wings and literally fly ( on the wind The seeds of the maple tree has an elaborate arrangement for i aerial transportation. It has wings like ( those of locust or large grasshopper. [ When the seed is detached from the f tree, even if there is no breeze, it does b not fall directly to the ground, but, by 0 It's peculiar construction it acquires a r spiral motion which carries it at least S some yards from beneath it's starting 2 point, When a wind is blowing, these S seeds often twrl through the air for f miles before they finally sink to the a earth to find a new home and to found b ! new maple grove D Some time ago appeared an account n if maple trees growing to the height of Il wenty-three feet upon the summit of a. n over 197 feet high in Greensburg De- s ,atur county, Ind A grove of maple n rees surrounds the court house, of h which this tower forms part, and the fl winged seeds; borne aloft by the winds, V lave taken root and fiourished upon the q oof of the tower.
 All varieties of asters have seeds fur fl lished with soft feathery pinions The al 'entlest zephyr is sufficient to wait w hem over field and meadow, and plant h, hem by every stream and pathway, but a, he storm wind lifts them to the clouds, h, nd they fly to far-off regions. Millions p all into the waters, which do their g. hare In planting them on distant iy hores; other millions perish, but na- II ure's pockets never become empty. Io The dandelion shows an almost hu- st nan intelligence in the sudden growth III the flower stem, when the seeds be- si in to ripen, to exactly the height which he nabes it to rear it's crown of feathered ,,r rrows above the surrounding growths, n, } that the breeze may bear the seed l,e way and plant it. Borne high upon le wind, it sails point first arrow-like nd falls into the earth in the most fa- ~, ne orable position for taking root. The W 9e ,untry children blow the seeds from ,,t "' le stalk to see whether mother wants 'e e." If the seed all fly away at one 'i i, 'eath, the child must hurry home. VI, The jewel weed, or wild touch-me- f 1t, growing luXuriantly by every ream and pond, has at this season the ,,,, pened seeds in little rounds pods, I hich, when the breeze shakes the ~" anches explode like tiny popguns, a en the seed to a considerable np nv stance around ~: The Spanish needle, all the burr tribe ld the "hppgar'S tice" have bpolyr a,, ''