Ill 



PLANT IMMIGRANTS IN THE GOLDEN STATE 



PLANTS are confirmed travelers and though 

 handicapped in respect of locomotion even 

 more thoroughly than the proverbial slow-going 

 tortoise, many of them manage in time to accom- 

 plish long journeys, and some species have even cir- 

 cumnavigated the globe. Vessels plying between 

 distant quarters of the earth are the means of carry- 

 ing many wild seeds which cling to the packing of 

 merchandise, or are hidden in dirt ballast. These 

 involuntary plant immigrants dumped out in fa- 

 vorable soil and finding a tolerable environment, 

 begin life anew in an alien land, and set about in- 

 creasing and multiplying just as energetically as 

 the human foreigner attacks his living in his land 

 of promise. Then, too, useful or ornamental plants 

 originally imported from other countries and estab- 

 lished in gardens, often escape into the road or field 

 and if conditions are favorable to a wild life, take 

 to gipsying their seeds being borne in time far and 

 wide through the agency of birds, winds, running 

 si 



