THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 247 



plain it by supposing that the trees which produce 

 these enormous fruits flourish in the unseen depths 

 of the ocean. 



It is, however, to the action of fresh water to the 

 currents of rivers and brooks that the most important 

 migration of plants are to be traced. If Pascal has 

 called rivers " roads that run," plants seem to have 

 discovered the fact before him. Borne on their flow- 

 ing waters, seeds frequently travel over great distances 

 and find new homes in remote lands. Even at home 

 land is continually washed aw r ay from river banks or 

 shores and thrown up again elsewhere, full of tiny 

 seeds. 



Animals also contribute largely to the dissemina- 

 tion of plants. Bees and other insects do much 

 planting ; marmots, dormice and hamsters provision 

 their underground dwellings with fruits, and a por- 

 tion of their commissariat, often forgotten and left 

 underground, germinate and develop at the return 

 of spring. 



Other mammiferous animals assist in their dis- 

 semination by a still simpler process ; seeds mature 

 in their fleeces and are deposited by them here and 

 there in their peregrinations. Thus sheep are made 

 to disseminate the seeds of agrimony. 



If birds consume an enormous quantity of seeds, 

 they are made useful, in return, by Providence, to as- 

 sist, energetically in scattering other seeds broad- 

 cast over the land which they inhabit. Thus, for in- 

 stance, thrushes, who feed upon the berries of the 

 mistletoe, have been made to disseminate those cele- 



