SEED SOWING 211 



one can tell what myriads of moisture-loving plants 

 are thus spread along our river shores. I have 

 found seeds of the skunk cabbage bobbing and 

 floating with the current; marsh marigold and car- 

 dinal flower doubtless follow the same road; and 

 the bladderwort and pondweeds break off their 

 buds and shoots and send them floating away, just 

 as we send cuttings of our own plants to be sprouted 

 by distant friends. 



The rain, also, helps in seed dispersal, especially 

 in the case of the yellow stonecrop, which it thus 

 plants in the deep crannies of rocks. The Veronica 

 also avoids wind dispersal of its seeds by keeping 

 its capsule closed till a shower comes. Then they 

 are shed, and are carried by trickling rills of rain 

 to low, moist places such as they require. 



