WATER TRANSPORTATION OF PLANTS. 
27 
in the chaff, as they fall when ripe, they are good 
floaters. 
In the driftwood, which we still have under considera- 
tion, are some fruits of maple, beech, oak, tulip tree, 
locust, and basswood. Maples are well scattered by the 
wind, but these seed-like fruits have taken to the water, 
and a few still retain vitality. An acorn, while yet alive, 
sinks readily, and is not suited for water navigation, 
unless by accident it rides on some driftwood. The fruits 
of the tulip tree, locust, and basswood behave well on the 
water, as though designed for the purpose, though we 
naturally, and with good reason, class them with plants 
usually distributed by wind. 
16 . Fruit of basswood as a sailboat, and a few others as 
adapted to the water. — In spring, when the bracts and 
fruits of the basswood are dry and still hanging on the 
tree, if a quantity of them are shaken off into the water 
which overflows the banks of a stream, many of these, as 
they reach the water, will assume a position as follows : 
The nuts spread right and left and float ; the free portion 
of the bract extends into the water, while the portion 
adhering to the peduncle rises obliquely out of the water 
and serves as a sail to draw along the trailing fruit. 
After sailing for perhaps fifteen minutes, the whole bract 
and stem go under water, the nuts floating the whole as 
they continue to drift with the wind. 
Noticeable among seeds in the flood wood are some of 
the milkweeds, which every one would say at a glance 
