of 



cupied, that perhaps not more than one seed in 

 a million ever germinates, and hardly one tree 

 in a thousand that starts to grow ever attains 

 maturity. Through sheer force of numbers and 

 continuous seed-scattering, the necessarily ran- 

 dom methods of nature produce results; and 

 where opportunity opens, trees promptly ex- 

 tend their holdings or reclaim a territory from 

 which they have been driven. 



Many times I have wandered through the 

 coniferous forests in the mountains when the 

 seeds were ripe and fluttering thick as snow- 

 flakes to the earth. Visiting ridges, slopes, and 

 canons, I have watched the pines, firs, and 

 spruces closing a year's busy, invisible activity 

 by merrily strewing the air and the earth with 

 their fruits, seeding for the centuries to come. 

 One breathless autumn day I looked up into the 

 blue sky from the bottom of a canon. The golden 

 air was as thickly filled with winged seeds as a 

 perfect night with stars. A light local air-cur- 

 rent made a milky way across this sky. Myriads 

 of becalmed and suspended seeds were fixed 

 stars. Some of the seeds, each with a filmy wing, 



303 



