Chapter II. 



Plant Wanderings and Migrations. 



*T 



Habits of birds and animals. The habits of birds and ani- 

 mals are of much importance in any study of plant distribu- 

 tion ; for the plant, but rarely provided with independent meth- 

 ods of locomotion, is forced to depend upon other agencies for 

 dissemination. To the waterfowl especially, with their well- 



FIG. 7. I^ake border vegetation of cat-tails, grasses, reeds and sedges, 

 After photograph by Williams. 



the Isles. 



known habit of flying south in the autumn and north in the 

 spring, do many plants owe the widening of their range. Their 

 seeds are ripened and fall upon the mud at the border of some 

 lake or pond where they are picked up on the feet or plumage 

 of migrant birds and are carried hundreds of miles north or 

 south of the point where they were produced. That is one rea- 





