The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-15
QUARANTINE FOR PLANTS
Hospital Annex to the Quarantine Sta tiOn--MedicaI T and Surgical Wards for Sick Plants.

tiOn--MedicaI and Surgical Wards
 for Sick Plants.
 As a measure of precaution against the importation of foreign vegetable afflictions, the government has estab lished at Washington a quarantine station for plants, where all specimens l fetched from abroad for the purpose of introduction and propagation in this country undergo careful inspection and, if deemed desirable. medical | treatment.
 The plants (many of them sent from various parts of the world by our agri- cultural explorers) are sometimes lit tie trees or bushes. More often they are little bundles of sticks, or "bud- wood,' ready for use in grafting, They may be done up in straw, wrapped carefully with waxed tae to retain moisture, or Gin the case of grating j wood) enclosed in tin tubes, each stick sealed at both ends with wax, to pre- vent evaporation and thus keep the buds alive.
 Whatever the shape in which they come, they are immediately un- wrapped and examined. If they seen to be in vigorous condition, that is SC far we'll, but it is necessary that they shall pass further inspection in respect to parasites, vegetable and animal which they may possible uarbor. Ac- cordingly, they are first submitted tC the expert eye of a skilled sntomol. cgist, who, with powerful magnifyine glass in hand, looks them over and makes sure that no injurious bugs are discoverable Some of the most de- structive insects are of the scale tribe, adhering inconspicuously .tt bark or leaf, so that a few specimens might not be noticed at oasua glance,
 Next, the consignment is taken ir hand by a plant physician, who, by the way, is a woman She-her name ii Miss Patterson, and she is one of the greatest living experts in such mat. ters-examines it for disease germs. Il low sea water, and the young plants require to be rooted in the mud If I the seeds simply fell and floated on the water they might be carried out to sea and perish. To meet this difficulty the seed begins to grow while still on the tree. It sends out its embryo root iIl the form of thick, solid spike, eight \ or ten inches long, and pointing verti- cally downward. When the seed falls it's weight carries it to the bottom of the shallow water, and the spike is driven firmly into the mud. The young plant has set itself and has sim ply to go on growing. Two interest ing. examples occur in the British flora The pretty little ivy leaved toadtiax, which grows on old walls, wants to lodge it's seeds in the hollows and cav- ities of the mortar. But it must needs keep it's flowers on the outside, i to bask, in the sunshine and spread a banquet for the been. So, as soon as ! the flowers give place to seeds, the flower stalks turn right back and car Try the seedpods inside, so that they may shed their seeds into the wall. l And then there is that pretty water buttercup, or croWfoot, who's white flowers star the ponds in spring. Its seeds must be sown in the mud at the bottom of the pond. So, as soon as the towering is over, the stalks turn right over and carry the seeds down into the required germinating place.
 The mangrove is not the only plant in which the problem of dispersal is solved by the seeds beginning to grow on the parent tree. Tn East Africa there is a tree known as the Nyika, the seeds of which germinate on the parent plant. Here it is the seed leaves which grow first instead of the root. These form 6 sort of parachute, by means of which the young plants are waited through the air to suitable spots. Some plants prefer to do their travelling by sea. If they are good sailors, that is, if they can float and stand long immersion in salt water, this is very effective way of reaching teh ends of the earth Thus the seeds of West Indian plant have been pick ed up in the Hebrides, having travelled there on the Gulf Stream, They have even been picked up on the bleak shores of Spitzengen. In these cases the locality has proved unfavorable, but they show how far plants may Itravel in this way, Cococanut palms fringe the shores in tropical regions. Blown from the trees, the cocoanuts flat about in the waters. And when, through the labors of the coral polype, or the exertions of the submarine vol cano, new island rises in the ocean, then, sooner or later, one of these ocean waifs lands on it's shores. It takes root and grows, is joined by oth- CTS and presently the new land has its fringe of palm trees. The great double cocoanut the Coco-de-Mer, was known as an ocean traveller long before the discovery of it's native land among the Seychelles. Stranded on bleaker northern lands, these travell- CTS from the tropics have not lost their iopeWer of germinating. The sea bean" waif from the West Indies, often cast on our shores by the Gulf Stream, has been raised in Kew Gard ems from seeds picked up on the Azores. Linnaeus the Swedish botanet, again, knew of cases where plants had been reared from seeds of tropical plants cast ashore on his own northern Hand. The seeds of other plants are provided with hooks or bristles, by which they adhere to the fur of animals Among native plants burdock, common avens and goose grass travel in thls way. The wool staplers of Elboeuf, in France, used to find seeds of medi- caga entangled in the fleeces which