286 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



Darwin has pointed out that in parts of the 

 world where the summers are short and chill the 

 land belongs to wind-fertilized plants, rushes, grasses, 

 sedges, and cone-bearers. 



And so the plants which entrust their future to 

 the wind have, on the whole, a wider geographical 

 range. But in pollen-sending, as in some other 

 undertakings, newer methods make for economy, 

 and the old way of doing things is wasteful. The 

 Coniferae have to produce so much pollen that 

 there shall still be enough for all needs after a 

 great quantity of the precious dust has been car- 

 ried wide of its destination by vagrant winds. 



So when the cone-bearing trees blossom, in May 

 or June, their blown pollen is everywhere. It 

 covers the surfaces of still waters, in the neighbor- 

 hood of evergreen woods. Whole bucketfuls of 

 it have been swept off the decks of vessels sailing 

 close to the coast of North America. One observer 

 has seen the ground near St. Louis covered with 

 pollen, as if sprinkled with sulphur, and there was 

 good reason to believe that it had been transported 

 from pine forests, 400 miles to the south. " Kerner 

 has seen the snow-fields of the higher Alps sim- 

 ilarly dusted," says Darwin, " and another nat- 

 uralist found numerous pollen-grains of Coniferae 



