36 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



of creatures not to eat food in the place where they 

 find it. 



It is said to be the case that more seeds are carried 

 to new sites by help of their own grappling-tools than by 

 any other simple agency. The assertion needs more proof 

 than it has received ; but, however that may be, the method 

 which most appeals to all of us, when we are vagrants 

 in the wide autumn fields, is the wind borne, not the 

 animal borne the balloon or parachute or arrow method, 

 whatever metaphor be preferred, the way of a seed in 

 the air. Even within the very heart of London you 

 have ado to escape the sight of flying seed. Again and 

 again Londoners have noticed the thistle-down, endowed 

 with the restless to and fro motion of a butterfly, blow- 

 ing about the byeways of East and Central London. It 

 is true that the down has often lost the seed, which 

 steadies the flight and offers a stronger pull to the force 

 of gravity ; but the stiffer winds will carry the fattest seed 

 many scores of miles, and likeness to the balloon is very 

 striking. 



Two years after the houses were pulled down to make 

 way for the great delta of King's Way and Aldwych, the 

 barren ground was a forest of willow-herb, which deserves 

 a place to itself among the feats of distribution and vitality. 

 Its natural place is along with loosestrife about the edges of 

 the rivers, where it has a master bearing among the tangled 

 roots of tall grass and flowers. But the long delicate feathers, 

 almost like the too precious aigrette plumes of the white 

 heron, carry the seed to every corner of the continents. In 

 North America and Newfoundland it is called the fire-weed. 

 After every forest fire it is the first thing to appear, cover- 

 ing the blackness and making the sooty ground into a rough 

 garden again. You may see the same resurrection on the 



