MOSEEEY. 21 



ascertained regarding the plants now growing on the 

 islands than to see how all of them could have been 

 transported across several miles of water. 



The seeds of many plants are provided with such 

 means of transportation as would render their safe 

 passage over a few miles of water an easy matter. 

 Some produce fruit that is swallowed whole by birds 

 and the pulp digested but not the seeds. The latter 

 may thus be transported over land or water and 

 propagate the species miles away from the parent 

 plant. A mountain ash found growing on Rattle- 

 snake Island in a thicket where birds roost was doubt- 

 less carried there in this manner. Some seeds like those 

 of thistle have down so light that the wind may carry 

 them long distances. Some are capable of floating for 

 a time and then germinating. Some seeds are so small 

 that they are likely to be carried in the mud that sticks 

 to tne feet of rails or other birds that frequent marshy 

 places. In several instances a single specimen of orchid 

 has been found growing on some springy bank or damp 

 place in the woods of Erie county and not another of 

 the same kind within many miles. In two instances 

 the single specimens are the only ones we have ever 

 found in the county. These probably came from seeds 

 that stuck to the feet of woodcocks or other birds that 

 transported them from some distant bog. Ammania 

 coccinea and some other mud-inhabiting species were 

 probably transported in this way to the shore of 

 Sandusky bay from much farther south for they are not 

 known to grow elsewhere within more than a hundred 

 miles. 



When the ice forms a bridge between the islands 

 and the mainland it would seem that weeds or their 

 seeds might be blown across it or be carried across in 

 the hair of animals. Seeds might also have been trans- 

 ported in former times by the Indians in their boats. In 

 the present century the flora of the islands has been 



