xxin THE HAWAIIAN MOUNTAIN-FLORA 279 



onidse published in the Transactions of the Linnczan Society for 

 1833. The "Cock of the Plains" (Tetrao urophasianus), as we 

 here learn, makes its nest on the ground under the shade of 

 Artemisia bushes, and lives on the foliage and fruits of these and 

 other plants. This bird is plentiful in Columbia and North 

 California, and another allied species is mentioned which lives on 

 the same sort of food. Later authors refer to these and other 

 birds of the same family as living chiefly on the Sage-brush 

 (Artemisia tridentata), a plant prevailing over great regions of the 

 plains as well as on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada and of the 

 Rocky Mountains. According to Dr. Sernander (page 228), birds 

 when feeding on the fruits of Artemisia vulgaris in the district of 

 Upsala scatter them about and thus aid in its dispersal. Artemisia 

 achenes, since they have neither pappus nor other appendages, nor 

 any special adhesiveness when wetted, depend largely on their 

 small size and light weight to aid them in dispersal. (Those of 

 A. absinthium measure a millimetre in length, or -^ of an inch, 

 whilst those of A. vulgaris measure rS mm., or T X T of an inch.) 

 Driven as we are to look to bird-dispersal for the means of 

 transport of Artemisia achenes, it is interesting to find a possible 

 source of the Hawaiian endemic species on the nearest American 

 mainland, even though it is some 2,000 miles away. It is assumed 

 that they would be ordinarily carried in adherent soil or entangled 

 in the feathers, and on rare occasions in the bird's stomach. 



The small seeds of Sisyrinchium possess no means of adherence 

 to plumage. They are crustaceous, and in cases where the stomach 

 and intestines of a bird are well filled with other food they are 

 quite capable of resisting injury. The solitary Hawaiian species 

 has, according to Hillebrand, a range in altitude from 3,500 to 

 7,000 feet. I found this pretty herb most abundant on the " cattle- 

 plains " of Hawaii between 5,000 and 6,000 feet, where it is evidently 

 in part dispersed by the cattle and other ani'mals. The seeds are 

 very small, being about a millimetre in size, and when dried nearly 

 100 go to a grain (0*65 decigramme). They might thus also be 

 transported in mud on birds' feet. 



For the mode of dispersal of the minute seeds of Lobelia, the 

 last of the mountain genera to be specially noticed, I must refer 

 the reader to the remarks on this subject in Chapter XXII. 

 They would probably be carried in soil adhering to the legs or feet 

 of a bird. 



There are one or two interesting points relating to the temperate 

 genus Silene, which is represented on these mountains. The four 



