HOW PLANTS LIVE TOGETHER 47 



Many of them are so small they would hardly be 

 noticed, but they are all wonderfully provided with 

 bladder-like sacs for floating the little plant, au- 

 chambers for aid in breathing and tiny crossbars to 

 act as rafts to keep the flower stems erect so that 

 the flowers shall be out of the water. Such wonder- 

 ful provision God makes for all His works! He pro- 

 vides for the Uttle bladderwort floating in the pond 

 as well as for the great, sturdy oak growing upon 

 the side of a hill. 



Can you think of some of the other societies of 

 plants? 



There is the swamp society, where the cat-tail 

 flag and the bulrushes grow, and where the larch 

 and hemlock trees make dense forests, into which 

 the sun never seems to be able to shine down upon 

 the thickly growing ferns. There is the rock society. 

 What dainty plants grow upon those great tumbled 

 rocks and high cliffs. The red and yellow horns of 

 the columbine and the little pink and yellow flowers 

 of the pale corydalis nod to you from the clefts of 

 the rocks in among the fern fronds. On the smooth 

 rocks the rock saxifrage fits its pretty rosette into 

 every possible crack, while the soft, green mosses 

 creep up and up trying to cover the space. 



There are the sand societies. The sand hills which 

 the grass keeps from blowing away is one place 

 where they are found; the desert is another, where 

 the cactus, the yucca and the century plant find the 

 hidden water and store it up for future use. The 

 gravelly hillsides or open land make another, where 

 the white birches and pitch pines grow, and where 



