69 
creatures drop them by the way. Again, they forget 
just where they deposited their hoard, or for some other 
reason they leave it untouched. Thus many nuts are 
scattered, and live to change into trees. 
Others may fall into the water, and float to distant 
shores. The cocoanut, for example, has been carried 
in this way for hundreds of miles. Its outer covering 
protects the seed from being soaked or hurt by water; 
and when at last it is washed upon some distant shore, 
it sends up a tall cocoanut tree. 
——0}@400— 
SOME. STRANGE STORIES 
HEN I began to tell you children about the dif- 
ferent ways in which plants send their young 
out into the world, I had no idea that I should take so 
much time, and cover so many pages with the subject. 
And now I realize that I have not told you one half, 
or one quarter, of all there is to tell. 
You have learned that seeds are scattered abroad by 
animals that eat the bright cases in which they are 
packed, and by animals into whose hair or clothing 
they manage to fasten themselves. 
You know that sometimes seeds are blown through 
the air by means of silky sails to which they are fas- 
tened, or else by their little wings. 
You discovered that certain plants actually pushed 
their young from their cozy homes in no gentle fashion, 
much as a mother bird shoves her timid little ones from 
fie edee of the nest. 
