196 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



leaves and flower-stalks, this is not the season for moving 

 them — they arc for fall planting. We will c<")nsider only 

 younj^ stock, in condition f(jr removal and ready for active 

 growth. We need not look where there has been much 

 mowing or close grazing, or where severe fires ha\'e run. 

 These cxtenninate all the tender green things. But in 

 almost any place where fairly natural conditions remain, we 

 may ex'/)ect to find young plants of each species commingled 



with the old. Let us make the 

 old fi-uiting plants our guide in 

 finding the less conspicuous and 

 less easily recognizable younger 

 generation. Under and near by 

 the old flowering-dogwood tree, for 

 example, we may find a few little 

 dogwoods that ha\'e sijrung up 

 from seeds. If there appear to 

 be none, let us look closely, for 



The 

 growing in'^'the sccds oftcu tcquire se\'eral years 

 to genninate, and the seedlings 

 under fa^^orable conditions may grow but a few inches a }'ear. 

 But the puniest of the little shade-dwarfed seedlings that \Te 

 may find, will respond wonderfully if set out in a nursery t< )w, 

 where they ha\'e plenty of room and light. They \\'ill soon 

 make fine trees. 



Figure 78 is a diagram of a ninebark growing at the edge 

 of a lawn. From its swollen pods hundreds of thousands of 

 seeds are shed e\'ery year. They are sown about over the 

 grass, or tossed more widely when the wind sways the 

 bushes. Sooner or later, most of them gemiinate and a few 

 succeed in striking ro( )t in tlie soil and in lifting their pretty 

 green leaves to the light. The mowing of the lawn clips their 

 tops ; but many of these seedlings have leaves that are below 



Seedling ninebarks in the 11 11 



the old shrub; b. the QOg^VOOdS COmC On Slowly. 



Fig. 78 

 lawn. 



little seedlings in the grass 

 older seedling 

 shelter of the fence. 



