The American Botanist 
VOL. XI. JOLIET, ILL., DECEMBER, 1906. No. 4 
WIND-DISTRIBUTED SEEDS. 
BY WILLARD N. CLUTE. 
A LMOST as soon as there were seeds, various agencies and 
conditions began differentiating them and perfecting their 
devices for transportation. Undoubtedly the wind was first 
impressed into the service of carrying seeds, if, indeed, it did 
not originate the whole custom. The first seeds were, in all 
probability, without means of any kind to aid them in seeking 
new territory, but even the slight chance of being moved some 
distance that the first faint wing-like expansion of a seed gave 
to it must have resulted in favor of such seeds in the long run. 
Thus was originated a series of modifications that have ex- 
tended to our own time — modifications that Nature is as keen 
about now as ever and which she takes as much pains now 
to keep up to their highest efficiency as when she first began. 
It is a far cry from the first small seeds blown about by 
the wind to the present day seeds with their wonderful modifi- 
cations for sailing. Many seeds seem never to have got beyond 
the first stages of the process and to this day rely upon their 
small size and light weight to secure transportation. 
Very early, however, two main lines of evolution for 
wind-borne seeds seem to have been selected. On the one 
hand, this evolution has led to the great group of winged seeds 
in which the wing not only acts as a sail, but in various ways 
retards the fall of the rather heavy seed to the earth; on the 
other, we have a group as large or larger in which the seeds 
are so light that the most fragile of silky parachutes is capable 
of carrying them long distances. 
It is interesting to note the differences in the way Nature 
looks after these two groups of seeds until they are mature. 
