CHAPTER V. 
SEEDS TRANSPORTED RY WIND. 
17 . How pigweeds get about. — In winter we often see 
dead tops of lamb’s-quarters and amaranths — the smooth 
and the prickly pigweeds — still standing where they grew 
in the summer. These are favorite feeding grounds for 
several kinds of small birds, especially when snow covers 
the ground. 
Many of the seeds, while still enclosed in the thin, dry 
calyx, and these clustered on short branches, drop to the 
snow and are carried off by the wind. Notwithstanding 
the provision made for spreading the seeds by the aid of 
birds and the wind, the calyx around each shiny seed 
enables it to float also; when freed from the calyx, it 
drops at once to the bottom. Many kinds of dry fruits 
and seeds in one way or another find their way during 
winter to the surface of the ice-covered rivers. When the 
rivers break up, the seeds are carried down stream, and 
perhaps left to grow on dry land after the water has 
retired. Most of the commonest plants, the seeds of 
which are usually transported by water, are insignificant 
in appearance and without common names, or with names 
that are not well understood. This is one reason for 
