46 THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE 



the ground where the pansy seed lay. Up, then, 

 would come the pansy and soon there would be little 

 pansy faces bobbing and laughing where no one re- 

 membered ever having seen them before. 



All over the world there are places where certain 

 plants will grow together, because they like the same 

 conditions of soil or moisture, sun or shade, and 

 wherever you find one of these plants you will be 

 quite Hkely to find others. These are called ''Plant 

 Societies." 



Isn't that an odd name for a group of plants 

 growing together? That word seems to belong to 

 people instead of plants, doesn't it? And yet the 

 plants do just what the people in a society do, pick 

 out and choose those others near which they will 

 grow best. 



The starry-eyed little hepatica likes to grow, in 

 an oak grove that stands on the side of a hill, where 

 the little plant can be almost buried in oak leaves. 

 The barberry bush likes to grow beside a stone wall. 

 Many other thorned bushes choose a stone wall, 

 too, so where the barberry bush grows you will 

 often find blackberry bushes and black raspberries. 



There are certain plants that like marshy ground 

 and many others that gTow in the water. The arrow- 

 head and pickerel weed stand waist deep in water and 

 are almost always found together; and where they 

 grow you will probably find also the yellow pond 

 lily and the beautiful white water lily. 



These water-loving plants have their roots in the 

 earth; but there are water plants in the ponds and 

 rivers which grow by merely floating in the water. 



