2 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 



tering of plants; especially is this true in moun- 

 tainous countries, and near the sea, where the val- 

 leys and cliffs are swept by the wind, and the tiny 

 seeds are often carried together with dust and sand 

 for great distances. The wind plants the sides and 

 crevices of the most lofty mountains, some plant 

 seeds being driven even across the Mediterranean 

 Sea or the Atlantic Ocean, since they are frequently 

 lighter than sand. The extreme minuteness of some 

 seeds is almost incomprehensible to the human 

 imagination. For example, a single capsule of a 

 South African orchid has been found to contain 

 the tremendous number of one and three-quarter 

 millions of tiny seeds ! 



We know that the ashes of volcanoes have been 

 driven by the wind more than a thousand miles ; in 

 1845 an eruption took place in Hecla, Iceland, and 

 some of the ashes were blown to Ireland and Eng- 

 land. It is not strange, then, that often after a 

 terrible wind-storm mountain-sides and high cliffs 

 are covered with new flowers in nature's own way of 

 planting. 



But there are some plants which travel by actu- 

 ally walking! 



Currant bushes, wishing to multiply, do not wait 

 for such a slow process as dropping their seeds to 

 the ground and letting them, little by little, sprout 



