The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-10-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUR E AU
FREDERIC J. RAEKIN. Dirsc4ee.
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HOW PLANTS TRAVEL
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ways in which plants travel about the
world, getting into all sorts of situa-
| tions where you would not expect to
| find them, is one of the phases of
| plant life which still puzzles scien-
| lists.
A special study of plant travels has
| been made by D. Lange, a well known
| botanist, who recently visited the
American Forestry association. In
| his study of plants, Mr.. LANCE has
/ been in almost every part of the world
He has made especially valuable OBJ
seFvations of the various methods of
seed DISRUPTION, and has added a
number OF new plants to the world s
list -
! About a quarter of a million differ
| ent kinds of plants are now known to
| science. Mr. LANCE says. The 1denu-
fieation of this enormous number rep
resents the labor of thousands of
scientists. In the days of Linnasus,
but ten thousand varieties had been
| identified. d
| Mr.. LANCE thinks of the world as
a great garden of plants He de-
/ scribes America wildly in terms of its
| plant life. Did you ever think of IT
that way? =
1 Before white men found America
/ said Mr.. Lange. "the eastern half of
| the continent was one great forest of
hardwoods, centering in the Ohio vail
ley. d
| This forest consisted of an assoc
citation of many species. and 1T
stretched almost without break from
the Atlantic coast to western Mime
i sofa.
North of this broad-leaved forest
extended a belt. of evergreen to the
| limit of treea into subarcties regions,
| and westward to the treeless plains.
In it's southern region the white and
Norway pines were the dominant trees.
( ff7a
any other species. and where, fires or
storms had not interfered for CEN
fury or two. they had crowded out
/ every other kind. -.-.s
| From Illinois to the foothills of the
| Rocky mountains stretched the largest
| grassy meadows of the world, known
as the prairies.
! THE question why these great fer
| tile 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, welI-fittedt to
resist annual or occasional severe
| drouths. Nor could millions of graz
| ing buffaloes and the fires started by
lightning or by primitive man harm
| the underground rootStock OF these
plants. To seeding trees, however,
| fire means almost certain destruction
Leaving out of consideration here
| the rather complex problem of plant
| distribution over the Black Hills. the
| Rocky mountains and the Great Basin
we reach on the Sierra, the Olympic
| and the Cascade mountains the grand
| est and most remarkable forest of the
| world, which stretches from California
northward to the limit of trees in
! Alaska. thru more than two thousdnS
| miles of latitude. sac --
| From California to Puget Sound is
a forest of enormous redwoods, yellow
| pines, Douglas frs, western hemlock
and other evergreens, including the
remarka BILE isolated groves of giant
fsequoiaS. containing trees of almost in
! credible size and age. And not only
/ the great sequofas but also the red
woods and frs are giants, often reach
ing height of two hundred to three
| hundred feet. In these forests the lit
| tie Douglas squirrel and number OF
! small birds live permanently in the
| tree tops and can only be studied thru
| telescopes.
I an extent, in density, in the kinds
and size of their trees. these forests
have no rivals on our planet.
1.-THE length of life among plants
varies even more than among animals.
The edible inky mushroom pro-
| duces its umbreIla-shaped column
| over night. 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 it's existence.
1.-THE giant sequoia, on the other
hand. has outlived the great empires
of human history, enjoying a vigorous
growth for three or four thousand
years. NesSfuRgus or insect pest is
able to harm it. Its top reaches three
hundred and fifty feet toward the sky
ano If storms, lightning and resulting
fires did not at last bring it down, it
seems that it might live and grow for
ever. And when, in the end, the giant
u. %laC
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 grow
ing in Mariposa park were already big
trees, a New England measures trees,
when Abraham pastured his floeks IN
! Palestine.
"Curious and many are the methods
of travelling adopted by plants. Most
plants can, of course, travel only as
seeds, aitho there are a few exceptions
to this rule.
"The advantage of the first conner.
the Squatter, one might say, plays an
important part in the world of plant
life. The cotton tufted seeds Of will
lows and poplars, 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
I these trees generally reach vacant
land sooner than ahysof their COM
petitors. The bare mud-flat left by a
flood. the railroad gravel pit, the
burnt-over and cut over pine forests
are nearly always pre-empteds by will
lows, poplars. or birches because
their seeds are much more widely
| disseminated than the seeds of any
other northern trees. PoplaEs and
trees, and within a century the DOM
inant pines will supplant them.
i Shrubs and trees, as well as vines
and herbs, that depend on birds for
the dissemination of their seeds run
| tad