CHAPTER III. 



COLONISATION BY OTHER METHODS 



Very often, plants are enabled to occupy new ground 

 through some special method of growth, or by means 

 of some specialised part (not fruit or seed) which has 

 been developed for the purpose. Sometimes the whole 

 plant is carried to a new place, to which it is either 

 blown by the wind, or floated upon the water. Among 

 plants so transported may be mentioned Manna 

 {Lecanora desertoruvi)^ and other lichens of the Syrian 

 desert, which, in dry weather, are blown over con- 

 siderable areas, and sometimes heaped up in great 

 quantities. 



Of other plants, perhaps the best known is the 

 so-called Kose of Jericlio {Anastatica Hierochunticd). 

 When dry, the whole plant curls into a sort of spherical 

 ball ; then it is said to be torn out and carried away 

 by the wind, but if it should reach a moist place, or be 

 placed in water, the withered-looking branches uncoil, 

 and the plant takes root and produces flowers and 

 fruit- 

 There are quite a number of water plants which, 

 throughout their lives, remain unattached, floating 

 freely, and carried about in the water. The small 

 Lemna, for instance, which has tiny green fronds 

 flattened out in a leaf-like manner, floats on the 

 water and obtains all necessary salts by means of long 



56 



