DISPERSION. 319 



Plata, and the Uruguay, now clothe immeasurable 

 tracts, and render them useless for pasture." After 

 the War of Deliverance, in many places where the 

 Cossacks had encamped, was found the tick-seed, a 

 plant allied to the goosefoots, which is quite exclu- 

 sively indigenous in the steppes on the Dnieper, and 

 in a similar manner was Bunias orientale spread with 

 the Russian hosts, in 18 14, through Germany even to 

 Paris. 



A curious circumstance has been recorded as this 

 chapter is passing through the press, which deserves 

 permanent record, albeit, it would have been more 

 in place in the seventh chapter. An Indian species 

 of Lorantkus, which is a parasite like the misletoe, 

 grows on evergreen trees, especially Memecylon. The 

 fruit is a viscid pulp, which surrounds the seed 

 and adheres to whatever it falls upon, until the seed 

 germinates. The peculiar locomotion now recorded 

 is confined to the first stage of germination of the 

 seed, and indicates a rambling habit for the pur- 

 pose of securing a suitable home. " The radicle at 

 first grows out, and when it has grown to about an 

 inch in length, it developes upon its extremity a 

 flattened disc ; the radicle then curves about until the 

 disc is applied to any object that is near at hand. If 

 the spot upon which the disc has fastened is suit- 

 able, the germination continues, and no locomotion 

 takes place ; but if the spot should not be a 



