1146 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 
bows, and the airship, now a seaship, glides over 
the ripples. 
Human aeronauts have boasted of their hydro- 
planes as the conquerors of air and water simul- 
taneously; but let them observe the tiniest seedling, 
and they will find their original contrivances but 
poor imitations in larger form of the hydroplanes 
in use in the realms of Plantdom for many centuries 
past. 
Man in his frail hydroplane guards against death 
among the waves by fastening a life-preserver 
about his body; the aeronautic plants learned to do 
that many ages ago. These plant life-preservers, 
also, are frequently made of cork. The seeds of the 
dock are so safe-guarded. 
But the air-tight compartment is the device gen- 
erally used by the plant-mother to protect her seed- 
children from the perils of the deep. The sedges, 
water-plantain, and many varieties of the common 
sea-weeds have these compartments. 
The airships built by the locust show tiny 
bulkheads separating the air-tight staterooms in 
which their passengers are lodged. Should there 
be some accident on the sea, and part of the pod- 
vessel be crushed, or broken open, the untouched 
compartments will remain afloat and bear at least 
one or two of the passengers to shore. There the 
