130 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



lacks this equipment but possesses water-tight com- 

 partments which have no bulkhead doors for a cap- 

 tain to remember to close. There are other nuts 

 and seeds which buoy themselves up with air-cham- 

 bers and oily skins. 



It is quite certain that these tree-voyagers make 

 trips quite as long as those of man. The Japanese 

 black currant is continually landing Asiatic seeds on 

 the shores of Oregon and Washington. A certain 

 West Indian seed of large dimensions drifts onto 

 the shores of the Hebrides quite often. All these 

 are small craft, but exceedingly seaworthy. 



Even the frost-filled wastes of the frozen North 

 offer no barrier to the tree-travellers. Propelled 

 by the strong winds of such regions, trees like the 

 honey locust send tiny ice-boats scurrying across 

 the frozen landscape at a mile-a-minute speed, 

 while others stick to the slower and more common 

 air route. 



While it is true that trees never walk across the 

 landscape at a speed which is visible to the eye, 

 they do by the slower processes of growth actually 

 move over the surface of the earth. Sometimes they 

 do their travelling under ground, like the rubber and 

 persimmon trees. These forest denizens, instead 

 of leaving it to their children to enjoy the advan- 

 tages of new locations, send out long side roots 



