22 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[January, 



did not flower. Ao;ain, seeds require peculiar 

 conditions to germinate, and although there are 

 some that will germinate at any temperature, 

 there are others which if they are not advanced a 

 certain stage towards development when a cer- 

 tain stage of moisture or of temperature occurs 

 at a certain season of the year, will remain un- 

 til the chance comes the next, or future years. 

 There are some nursery seeds that will not ger- 

 minate after the Spring temperature of the soil 

 goes beyond 45° or 50.°— Ed. G-. M.] 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



BY REV. L. J. TEMPLIN, HUTCHINSON, KAN. 



The world is full of wonders to every one who 

 has not made up his mind to be astonished at 

 nothing he may see. To the thoughtful mind 

 there is much in nature to inspire wonder and 

 admiration. The wise adaptation of means to 

 ends, and the beautiful harmony that exists 

 throughout all the realm of organic nature lead 

 the mind free from bias to the inference that 

 some wise intelligent power orders and governs 

 all these relations and harmonies. Perhaps 

 nowhere in nature is there a more manifest ex- 

 hibition of wisdom in the adaptation of means 

 to the accomplishment of a worthy purpose than 

 is seen in the various methods employed in 

 nature for the dissemination of plants by the 

 distribution of seeds. 



In looking at this subject with an intelligent 

 eye the mind cannot shut out the conviction that 

 some intelligent designer must have been em- 

 ployed in planning this scheme that has so 

 much of both excellence and variety to recom- 

 mend it to the judgment. To say that all this 

 is to be attributed to chance is to endow chance 

 with all the attributes of a Deity, which is the 

 very reverse of the idea intended to be conveyed 

 by the term. In the sense intended it is per- 

 fectly absurd to attribute this or any other work 

 to chance, for in that sense chance is nothing, 

 and consequently can do nothing. So we regard 

 it as the result of evolution ; but I cannot see 

 that this relieves the difficulty, even if the truth 

 of the theory of evolution be admitted. Evo- 

 lution is simply the working out of certain 

 results under the operation of law. But what is 

 this law ? It is not correct to say that it is force, 

 though I think many make this mistake. Law 

 is onl}'^ the established order or manner in which 

 force operates, so that if we admit the interven- 

 tion of law and a thousand or ten thousand 

 secondary causes, still this law must have origin. 



ated with a Law-giver, and behind all these- 

 secondary causes the mind m;ust rest at last on 

 the great First Cause, the Author of all other- 

 causes. But I did not start out to write a moral 

 or philosophical essay, but to call attention to- 

 some of nature^s methods of distributing the 

 vegetable kingdom over the world. In produc- 

 ing these results we find three classes of agents- 

 at work : the waters, the winds and animals,, 

 besides certain arrangements within the plants 

 themselves for the accomplishment of this pur- 

 pose. And we find the seeds themselves 

 adapted to these different means of transpoi'ta- 

 tion. The light character of many seeds well! 

 adapts them to floating from place to place,, 

 while their impervious coverings protect them, 

 while being carried long distances by the currents- 

 of the ocean or of rivers, and then when they 

 lodge on some island or other shore they readily- 

 spring up and grow. "What, for instance, can be 

 better adapted to floating from island to island' 

 than the tough, corky covering of the cocoanut.. 

 The seeds of grasses and other plants are washed 

 down from the higher grounds by streams, and 

 they are thus widely distributed. 



The seeds of many plants, as of the dande- 

 lion, thistle and a long list of similar plants are 

 furnished with a tuft of downy or silky pappus,, 

 that will enable them, when ripe, to float away 

 on the breeze and thus be scattered far and' 

 wide. The seeds of some species of poplar,. 

 Cottonwood, are attached to a bunch of fine- 

 cotton that serves as a buoy to bear them up- 

 through the air by means of which they are fre- 

 quently carried many miles from the parent 

 tree. Seeds are often disseminated through' 

 animal agency. Animalsfrequently carry seeds- 

 and nuts away and bury them for winter food,, 

 where they are forgotten and left to grow. 

 Many seeds of fruits ai*e swallowed by birds and'- 

 carried to distant places and voided uninjured,, 

 and there spring up and grow. Thus the seeds 

 of cherries, grapes, gooseberries, blackberries 

 and many others of like nature are sown broad- 

 cast over a large extent of countr}'. During an 

 invasion of the Rocky Mountain Locust into 

 Iowa a few yeai's ago, they left the ground 

 where they fed thickl}- strewn with the seeds of' 

 some species of grass, new to that locality, 

 which they had brought from the far north-Avest.. 

 Many seeds are provided with hooked barbs by 

 which they cling to clothing and the coats or 

 animals, and are carried about from place to- 

 place. 



