20 
SEED DISPERSAL. 
possibly carrying at the base the rudiments of a small 
bud, which draws on the floating leaf for nourishment 
and produces a small plant near its base. These plants, 
floated and nourished by the mother leaf, may drift 
down a creek or across a pond and 
establish new settlements. In a similar 
manner behave leaves of the following, 
and perhaps others : Cardamine pratensis, 
horse-radish, celandine, some water lilies, 
and other plants not grown in wet land. 
Gardeners often propagate certain 
species by placing leaves on wet sand 
or mud, when buds spring from the 
margins of the leaves or from 
some other portion. 
One of the buttercups, Ranun- 
culus multijidus, and very likely 
others, spread over the mud by produc- 
ing runners, much after the manner of 
a strawberry plant. If, as in case of a 
freshet, the plants should be covered 
with water, they show their enterprise by 
taking advantage of the “ tide ” ; some 
of the runners are quickly severed, and 
are then at liberty to go as they please. 
12. Fleshy buds drop off and sprout in the mud. — One 
of the loosestrifes, Lysimachia stricta, a plant growing in 
bogs, besides reproducing itself by rootstocks and seeds, 
Fig. 12. — Floating leaf 
of lake cress , Nastur- 
tium lacustre, with a 
young plant growing 
from the base. 
