157 DISPERSAL OF SEEDS. 
seeds, a number could be carried in a very small quantity of mud, on 
a bird’s foot. 
Darwin carried out some interesting experiments with the dried 
mud found on the feet of birds; an account of them is given in the 
“Origin of Species,” Chap, XII., page 328. 
We now come to the fourth and last section: Seeds carried by 
water. 
The most striking water-carried fruit is the Cocoanut, which 
has been known to travel 3000 miles in the sea and then grow. No 
doubt a number of our British plants get their seeds dispersed by 
rivers and streams. Nuts and fleshy fruits falling into the water 
are often carried a long way down a river; pieces broken off herb- 
aceous plants growing by the water’s edge, will float a long way and 
carry any fruits that happen to be on them, perhaps to quite a new 
locality. Many seeds have unconsciously been dispersed by man, 
particularly in the making of railways, canals, etc. This opens up 
another question: have some seeds lain dormant in the earth for 
years and then germinated when disturbed ? 
A number of foreign plants get distributed along our railways, 
the seeds probably becoming detached from imported goods during 
transit. 
Along canals many plants probably have their seeds transported 
from one district to another by sticking in the mud and dirt on the 
sides of the barges as they brush along the banks. 
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