RAISING TREES FROM SEED. 25 



CHAPTER III. 

 RAISING TREES FROM SEED. 



Naturally, seeds drop from trees directly to the ground, 

 or are scattered by the winds for some distance. To 

 provide for their wider distribution many kinds of seed 

 have their membraneous appendages or winged margins. 

 These are termed Key-fruited. The maple, elms, birch, 

 ash, and tulip trees are familiar examples among the 

 deciduous trees, and the common arbor-vitas, pine, and 

 spruce among the evergreens or coniferae. The seed of 

 oaks, hickory, and nut-bearing trees generally, are not 

 scattered any considerable distance from the parent 

 stock, except through the agency of mice, squirrels, and 

 other small animals, who carry them away for food, but 

 occasionally leave them in a position conducive to future 

 growth. It might be supposed that Nature would make 

 no mistakes in placing seeds in the best possible position 

 for germination, and were she at all chary in regard to 

 waste, we might find it so, but being prodigal in all of 

 her productions, the preservation of one seed in a thousand 

 or even in a million is sufficient for her purpose. Or we 

 may look upon this seeming extravagance as purposely 

 intended to supply with food the hordes of animals that 

 are known to live on seeds the perpetuation of the 

 species being dependent on what is left, after the animal 

 creation have been well supplied. But we can readily 

 see that a large portion of all the seeds that fall do not 

 find congenial places for growth, even if they be not 

 interfered with by animals or man, for some drop in 

 stony places, others upon the dead leaves, where they 

 dry up and wither. Seeds of the large fleshy-fruited 

 trees, as the apple, pear, plum, or oranges, lemons, and 



