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THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vor. xvi.—AUGUST, 1883.—No. 8. 
MEANS OF PLANT DISPERSION? 
BY E. J. HILL. 
FE paper which is embraced in the following pages can hardly 
be called one on a subject of microscopy, though to establish 
some of its facts it requires the aid of the microscope. But the 
great interest now taken in all biological studies, leads us to look 
and work beyond the field of view bounded by objectives. They 
are instruments to help the eye, and are mainly useful when the 
unaided eye fails to see distinctly. Hence the choice of a sub- 
ject having a wider range than those ordinarily treated here. The 
facts presented are mostly those that have come under my own 
observation, based on an experience of several years of work in 
field and cabinet, and may be easily verified by any one so dis- 
posed, even if not already familiar, They are chiefly confined to 
our own flora, that the paper may have a local interest, althaugh 
many instructive illustrations might be cited from the writings of 
others. They are also limited to the propagation of plants by 
means of fruit, seed and spore, or analogous substitutes for these, 
and to their adaptations and the agents that act upon them to ac- 
complish this result. The agency of man is excluded except in 
So far as it may be unintentional, or merely accidental, as in the 
case of any animal. It is to the means of dissemination found in 
nature, of which the plant may avail itself, that the subject will be 
restricted 7 . 
It is one that has to some extent received attention from botan- 
ists, though in the main incidentally. Near the close of the last 
* Read at the monthly meeting of the State Microscopical Society of Illinois, 
Chicago, Jan. 12, 1883. 
VOL. XVIH.—NO. VIII. 55 
