CHAPTER" IV. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



THE dissemination of seeds is a subject not unworthy o* 

 allusion. It is known to botanists, that nearly all plants have 

 particular localities to which they are indigenous. But, by 

 various means, they have become more or less distributed over 

 different and distant parts of the earth. Some seeds, as those 

 of the thistle and dandelion, are furnished with a little plume 

 or wing, by means of which they are wafted by winds to great 

 distances, and thus sown in a soil and locality where the 

 species was never before known. Some seeds are furnished 

 with hooks or burs, by means of which they attach themselves 

 to the clothing of men and animals : seeds are also eaten by 

 animals and birds, carried to great distances, voided undigested 

 and without injury to their vitality, germinate wherever they 

 are deposited. 



Many seeds are so protected by a thick dense pericarp, that 

 they make long voyages, being carried along by the current 

 of streams, or the ebbing and flowing of tides, until they reach 

 a distant country, and perhaps even another continent, and 

 there propagate and establish their species. They are carried 

 also by ships and other conveyances engaged in commercial 

 transportations, as well by accident as by design for the 

 purpose of cultivation. Many seeds retain their vitality after 

 boiling, digestion in alcohol, and being buried in the earth for 



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